The More the Merrier
by TechnoDee
Summary: Nightmare has been defeated, and peace has been restored. Well, that's what it seems like. However, Nightmare is not the only enemy out there. There are still other enemies waiting for the perfect moment to come out... But at least, our heroes get new allies as well, to be fair.
1. The Crash

_So, this is a story. A story as in what? Simply, a story. A story with words that will make you read the entire thing._

_That said, this is my first story. Which, I am not using an excuse for lame writing. If you find my writing lame, then blah, you find my writing lame. Then just leave. I don't like using excuses, you know._

_So anyway, this is directly after Nightmare is defeated in the anime. Apart from that, you may proceed._

* * *

1: The Crash

_"All I remember was the warp button glowing in front of me, when I saw a planet..."_

_"...and before anything else, I was heading towards that planet faster than the speed of light."_

* * *

Rays of sunlight streamed in into a certain knight's room. As expected, the knight woke up, and gazed wearily out of the window. The sun seemed to be greeting him and waking him up from his slumber, smiling warmly and shining brightly, as if saying, "Another new brilliant day of wonderful things!"

The knight promptly shut the curtains close, blocking out all sunlight.

This action was due to the fact that the sun was now completely irrelevant in this tale.

And since that is so, we shall do a bit of introduction. The knight's name is, obviously, Meta Knight. He lives in Castle Dedede even though he no longer needs to, but actually, he _does_ need to, so whatever. He stretched and imagined the sun whining behind the curtains.

_Fine, you little baby. I'm getting up already._

Meta Knight got up, stretched again, then reached for his mask and firmly put it on. He didn't bother to open the curtains, since light was not needed yet. He walked over to his dust mirror that he never used. He only kept it because it was a gift from Waddle Doo. Why that spherical cyclops gave it, the knight will never know. Actually, he may have, since the cyclops said that _His Ever-so-lovely Perfect Majesty_ said that Meta Knight looked like a pile of dust, so he really needed to clean himself up.

Well, luckily, it was not just a mirror. It was a vanity. Which was commonly used for _girls_, but Meta Knight could toss things there, so whatever. He stared into the mirror for a long while, studying his appearance. Then, after a while, he strolled out of his room and saw that his two ever-so-loyal knights were up and about, watching the television and the only channel there was ever there, _Channel DDD_.

"When did you wake up?" Meta Knight asked dubiously. Usually, he woke up far earlier than they did... Heck, he usually woke up before the sun rose.

"W-Well, two hours ago, Sir. We did not wish to disturb you from your sleep, as you looked very tired yesterday," Sword explained nervously, hoping Meta Knight wouldn't lash out at them because of this.

"...Kirby must be waiting for me, then, for a very long time," Meta Knight stated instead.

"Uh... Kirby-dono? Why would he be waiting?" Blade asked.

"Do you not know that I have been training him recently? Even with Nightmare gone, we may still have new enemies," Meta Knight pointed out, folding his cape around himself like he always did in that cool-ish way. Immediately after that, he walked out of the door, while saying, "Just patrol around the castle for any unusual activities again, as usual."

Before he could fully leave, Sword spoke up quickly. "Oh yes, Sir! There was a crash at the hill, somewhere near where Kirby-dono first landed." _Landed_ was an understatement, of course. _Crash_ was more like it. But they dared not to say anything as horrendous-sounding as that.

Meta Knight tensed. "Ah, okay. Has anyone reported what it is?"

"Not yet, sir, but not much movement has been made."

"Okay, then I'll check it for myself."

* * *

After fetching Kirby, Fumu and Bun, Meta Knight headed towards the crash site. There was a lot of smoke everywhere, and it was hard to see. "Oh, come on, it's most likely just a meteorite," Fumu pointed out casually. "We've been having tons of that, this is probably no different."

While that may be true, it probably was not, as Kirby was extremely enthusiastic to find out what was there, and Meta Knight was feeling a strange sensation.

"Let's just check it out anyways," Meta Knight said before walking on.

When they reached the crash site, they saw something that they didn't expect to see. It was a Star Warrior ship, like Kirby's, except there were _three_, in the colors of white, red and green. Another thing was that there was a yellow Kirby, a red Kirby and a green Kirby dawdling there.

Kirby shouted "Poyo!" in happiness before running over to them. The Kirbys looked at him for a moment, before cheering excitedly.

"Hey! He looks just like us!" the yellow Kirby exclaimed, stating the obvious.

"Well, duh! Of course he does!" the red Kirby huffed.

"Gee, don't have to be so snappish, Rirby," the yellow Kirby said flatly to the red Kirby, who was known as Rirby.

"Well what are we going to do? We crashed and we...crashed," the green Kirby said, frowning. "And look, other stuff that don't look like Kirbys. Oh gee, this is awful."

Fumu crossed her arms. "Well, haha, I am Fumu, daughter of the Cabinet Minister."

The yellow Kirby gave her a brief glance before reverting his attention back to Kirby. "Why, hello there! I'm Yirby"—he pointed to himself—"this is Rirby"—he pointed to the red Kirby—"and that's Girby!" Finally, he pointed to the green Kirby. "You must be Kirby! Well, nice to meet you!"

"_Hey_!" Fumu yelled, knowing that she had just been completely ignored. Once again, all three Kirbys gave her the briefest and quickest glance, before turning back to Kirby.

"Poyo, poyo!" Kirby cheered. "Yirby, Rirby, Girby! Poyo!"

"_Poyo_? That's infant language," Girby said, blinking as he picked Kirby up and placed him on his back. "Wait, he came here earlier than us..."

"Doesn't that mean that he hasn't slept enough?" Rirby pointed out.

"Will you guys just pay attention to me!" Fumu yelled again, exasperated.

This time, she did get a response, but not the one she was looking for. "Ah, really, this cabinet girl is really getting on my nerves," Rirby grumbled, giving Fumu a deadly glance. "It's kinda rude to interrupt when we're studying Kirby, you know."

Fumu looked at them, disgusted. "Kirby is not something to study. Kirby is not an object, he's a living, breathing thing! And he defeated Nightmare, but without _my_ help, it would have been impossible."

Girby snickered. "Now girly is getting all the attention to herself, isn't she?" Then, he turned to Bun. "And who might you be?"

"U-Uh..." Bun nervously looked at Girby. "I'm Bun, Fumu's brother."

"Oh, girly's brother, huh." Yirby looked at Meta Knight. "And you?"

"The name is Meta Knight," he stated, but was confused as to what was going on. "Why have you crashed so late? Should you not have arrived as the same time as Kirby?" he questioned.

Rirby shrugged. "I think Kirby landed a bit too early."

"And he didn't have enough sleep."

"Which is why he can only go 'poyo'," Yirby concluded, smiling, pleased with himself. "Anyway, now that we know where we are...well, kinda..." He sheepishly grinned. "We need a place to stay."

"Hold it! Who ever told you you could stay?!" Fumu demanded. She didn't like the three Kirbys.

"We told ourselves. Our ships didn't crash here coincidentally, you know," Girby said. "It means that there is something to be done here. But now, we do not know what it is, so we're going to find a place to stay."

Fumu looked at them and remembered how they built Kirby's home. "Well, you guys aren't getting any help from us!" she declared.

Rirby scoffed. "As if we need your help, girly. We're not an infant. We have the ability to build our own home."

"What?!" Fumu looked at Kirby, sighing. _Jeez, they're a lot more capable than I hoped they were!_

"But my dear ship is broken..." Yirby sniffed. "It won't be in function for the time being. We need to settle in somewhere so we can repair our ships..." The three Kirbys nodded in agreement. "Alright then. Let's take our ships then find a place to stay."

Fumu saw where this was going, and didn't like it. She didn't want it to be their way. "Well, you're not welcome in Pupu village, so find a home somewhere else from here!" she said crossly.

The three Kirbys ignored her as they started to pull their ships and leave.

* * *

"...This seems like a good place. A tall cliff where no one will disturb us, and we have a brilliant view of the village," Yirby said, as he let down his white ship. The other two Kirbys nodded in agreement. "We just need to find materials now."

"They probably won't support us cutting down trees, though," Girby pointed out. "We better be careful."

"So what? Nearly all houses are made out of wood," Rirby scoffed. "Unless you want your house made out of stones, which is absolutely hard to create! Well, you do whatever you wish, I will be building my own house."

"But Rirby! We're sharing one huge house!" Yirby yelled. Rirby scowled. "We're making it out of wood, okay, Girby? Okay? Great. We just need to find the materials now, as I said earlier."

Yirby and Rirby left to find materials, while Girby stayed to keep watch on their ships.

* * *

"They totally piss me off, don't you think so, Kirby?" Fumu huffed angrily. They were on a small balcony of Castle Dedede, and watching them build their fairly large house. "Calling me girly... Saying that I'm rude... They go _way_ too far."

"Poyo, poyo!" Kirby cried happily.

"Huh, so you like them, eh?" Fumu muttered, disappointed.

"...It is not only the three Kirbys who landed," Meta Knight said quietly. Fumu looked at him, eyes widening. "While we were occupied with them, another being landed, but it is not a Kirby, I can say that."

Fumu nodded. "And where are they now, then..?"

Meta Knight looked all over. "They are still unconscious...but I believe it may be a female. She is still in the woods, unconscious."

Immediately, Fumu's eyes grew even larger than before. She leaned over the edge of the balcony. "No... They're still collecting wood over there! If they find her before we do, then... Things could go _really_ wrong!" Fumu only said this so that the female being would be allies with them, and enemies of the Kirbys. "Let's go, Kirby!"

They ran out of the castle—which tired them greatly—but then bumped into Dedede himself. Dedede and Escargon were in their car, as usual. "Good morning, dear Fumu~" Dedede said in his sweet tone, which was obviously falsely sweet. They used their car weapon hand thing to pick up Fumu and dump her in the car boot. Fumu shrieked as they caught her in a net. "A new being, eh? Maybe if we catch her before anyone else, she'll be under the influence of great King Dedede!"

"Kirby! Please! Get there before they can!" Fumu yelled. "Come, Warp Star!"

And somewhere, far away, Kabu opened his mouth. "_Warp Star_!" As the Warp Star flew out of his mouth, as bright as ever. It dived straight towards Kirby and he jumped on it and headed towards the forest.

Dedede laughed. "Oh, it'll take ages for a baby like Kirby to find someone else. Oh, and Fumu dear, we have a present for you~! Escargon, give her the DDD Slime." He laughed again with Escargon.

Fumu banged against the car. "What slime?! I don't want any of your slime!"

"Hahaha!" A blob of green slime (well, aren't slimes always green?) dropped on Fumu. "Just stay in there with the DDD Slime!"

Fumu tried to get away from the slime, but it wasn't really possible, since there was a lot filling the car boot. She felt herself losing consciousness.

* * *

"Poyo, poyo..." Kirby was searching through the forest, but could not find the female being. Then, he came across Yirby. "Poyo! Yirby, Yirby!"

"Oh, hello, Kirby. What are you doing here?" Yirby asked as he collected more wood.

"Poyo looking..." Kirby frowned as he struggled to remember what it was called, "being that here."

Yirby paused. "Oh, that. I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for, but I saw some smoke somewhere near the middle of the forest, so the being might be there. I'm not really sure, but yeah. See you later, Kirby."

Kirby waved as he continued to search. He had let the Warp Star go since he could walk by foot now. "Middle of forest..." he murmured to himself. He wasn't even sure which part of the forest he was at!

And just so luckily, Rirby chanced upon him. "Oh? Yo Kirby! I see that you aren't with girly. But what are ya doing out here, anyway?"

Kirby knew that it held no point if he told him what he was doing, so instead, he asked another thing. "Where is middle of forest, poyo?"

"Huh? Oh...uh, I think if you turn right here. There should be a clearing up ahead or something...that's what Girby said. Is that all? Bye." Rirby walked off, too.

Kirby turned right and kept walking. He was pretty tired already, and was sure that Dedede would get there before him. A car was a lot faster, and besides, Kirby didn't quite know what a clearing was. When he reached an empty spot with just grass in the forest, he collapsed.

_This is it... This is the clearing._ Kirby looked up to see smoke. He brightened up and ran towards it. Unfortunately, he just witnessed Dedede leaving, and just a ship left. _I was late!__ I've failed Fumu..._

Then, he ran after Dedede. It was his only hope now.

* * *

Fumu woke up, still covered in that _slime_, but she felt really tired. "What...ah...what happened..." She looked beside her and saw a girl. She had long golden hair and her eyes were closed, breathing heavily. "...Ahh, we're gonna die due to lack of oxygen!" Fumu screamed suddenly. The girl woke up, looking at Fumu with surprised cerulean eyes.

"Oh, ack, sorry, I woke you up," Fumu apologized, laughing slightly. "I just realized that we could die..."

"Due to lack of oxygen?" the girl tilted her head. "Well, anyway, I'm Hikari. Who are you?"

"Fumu," Fumu replied. "I just realized that we're gonna die of oxygen...yes! That's it. But surprisingly, I haven't died yet, and I've been here for a while already... Hm. What's happening? How am I alive?"

"Well, I don't think we'll die. This car boot most probably has some pipe that allows air to enter... And it could also be our escape," Hikari said, looking around.

"A...pipe?" _What's a pipe again?_ Fumu thought frantically.

"A pipe, a tube?" Hikari offered. Fumu nodded.

"Oh, yes... We could probably escape from there. Yes, you're right." Fumu looked around as well. She saw a black thing with a hole. "Hm..."

"Fumu, that's a pipe!" Hikari exclaimed. "We could get out from there! It's kind of tight here, so only one person at a time. I'll go first, then I'll help you out."

_Why am I so sluggish?_ Fumu thought. _I can't even recognize a **pipe**._ "Okay." Hikari crawled to the pipe and crawled through it, and when she got out, inhaled the scent of fresh air. She looked down through the pipe and stuck her hand through. Fumu, relieved she had not been betrayed, took her hand and climbed out.

Hikari smiled at her surroundings, before a look of panic crossed her face. "Ah! My ship!" she exclaimed softly. "I need to go find it."

She grabbed Fumu then yanked her off the car, running back towards the forest. "Your ship?! But I have to go back to the castle! That's where I...where I stay!" Fumu exclaimed. _Strange,_ she thought. _Why am I so slow to respond?_

Hikari shrugged. "Well, it looks like our captors are heading that way, so I suggest you don't go there for a while." Finally, they reached a broken ship. "Ack! My ship! Augh, this is gonna take ages to repair... I didn't think the landing would be that messed up..."

"Poyo!" another voice called. Fumu looked around. _That voice is...uh, who is it?_ "Poyo, poy!"

"Kirby!" Fumu yelled happily. Kirby smiled brightly. "Hikari, this is Kirby, the hero of Pupu Village. Kirby, this is Hikari. She helped me escape."

"Nice to meet you, Kirby," Hikari said with a smile. "But, I really must go now. Are there any Star Warriors nearby?"

"Ah! Kirby's a Star Warrior!" Fumu exclaimed.

"But he is too young, he would not know how to repair my ship..." Hikari muttered, looking at the ground.

"Well, there's always Meta Knight around. He should know!" Fumu suggested.

Hikari looked at Fumu for a moment. "You've really helped me a lot, Fumu... Just do one more favor for me. Find this 'Meta Knight' and call him over here."

Fumu and Kirby smiled at Hikari. "Alright! We're off!"

* * *

In the reality we all hate to admit we live in, Meta Knight was watching from a tree branch. He might have been spotted, but he was lucky they were not very sharp or observant. So they wanted him to help repair the ship, it seemed.

His eyes glowed for a moment, before he snorted.

They wanted his help, wasn't it?

He turned around and leaped to another tree. He kept leaping until he was out of the forest, where the completely irrelevant sun was shining. He could see the three Kirbys, and their fully-constructed house. He looked back at the forest. So they wanted help.

"They want help from _me_?" he repeated, looking dubiously at the forest.

"But still, help they will not get."

* * *

_...And I've just learnt how awkward it must feel when you're about to post a chapter._

_Oh, and in case some of you are wondering why Meta Knight won't help... That's why you have to read, isn't it?_

_Well, there you go, first chapter, first story and all that blah. Review please, no flames._

_...Actually, why do people care so much about the number of reviews they get? Pft._

_So anyway, if you review, no flaming, as I said earlier, but you could point out any mistakes that I might make._

_Don't be harsh, people. I'm super sensitive._


	2. The Thunderstorm

_Okay, if you haven't noticed, I made Yirby's starship white. This is because Kirby's starship is already yellow._

_Here are the rough personalities of the three Kirbys:_

_Yirby: Lighthearted and clumsy.  
Rirby: Ill-tempered, proud but determined.  
Girby: I don't think I made it very clear in the first chapter, but he's kinda paranoid._

* * *

2: The Thunderstorm

_"I don't know about you, but thunderstorms are far from scary."  
_

* * *

_BAM_.

Yirby jumped, slightly surprised at the loud sound. _Hm,_ he thought, before he squealed out of sheer excitement. Rirby bolted up, casting a glare in Yirby's direction, but the yellow puffball was already scrambling up to the window, eyes shining. Girby woke up, but more nervously.

"...What is it?" Rirby asked after a while.

"Thunderstorm!" Yirby replied cheerfully.

Somehow, Yirby had always liked thunderstorms. Rirby scoffed, a habit of his, before turning around and attempting to fall asleep. Girby crossed his arms. "Uh, okay, but can you come back down and sleep, Yirby?"

Yirby shook his head. "Nope. 'Sides, it's only three in the morning."

"Two!" Girby corrected. Thunder boomed again loudly, and his immediate reaction was diving under his duvet and starting to shudder.

"You're such a baby, Girby," Rirby grumbled. "Yirby, close the curtains and get back to bed _before I do it for you_."

Yirby whined in protest but shut the curtains nonetheless, and hopped back to his bed.

* * *

"Okay, Yirby?"

"Yes."

"I don't want you to start screaming in the middle of the night again."

Yirby gave a loud snort. "And _why_, Mister Cannot-Start-Screaming-In-the-Middle-of-the-Night? "

Rirby twirled his spoon that was covered in dough. "Because, I just received a warning letter. Mainly because you were shrieking over a thunderstorm. And guess what, not because you were _scared_, but because you were _excited_!"

Girby wrung his hands in a corner. He was completely left out of the conversation. Not that it particularly mattered, anyway. "B-But, we didn't get fined did we?" he asked nervously.

"Oh, shush, Girby. Go and try to repair our ships," Rirby snapped as he licked the dough of his spoon.

"That's unhealthy," Yirby stated.

"Unhealthy is my middle name," Rirby retorted.

"U-Um, Rirby?"

"_What_."

"You left the cookies burning."

* * *

"Kirby, where do you think Sir Meta Knight is?"

"Poy, poy poyo!"

"I guess you're right."

One day of looking _still_ hadn't helped them to find the knight. (At this point, Fumu was suspecting he had teleporting abilities.) They had apologized to Hikari, who said she would wait until he was _discovered_, so to speak. They were walking down to his room which he probably was not in. But his ever-so-loyal servants _probably_ were.

They ran into Bandana Dee, the newly-employed Waddle Doo assistant. He was pretty friendly, but rather jumpy and _to__o_ energetic.

"Oh hi!" he exclaimed, taking Fumu's hand and shaking is wildly.

"Hi Bandana," Fumu replied. "What are you doing?"

"Waddle Doo and I are gonna play _Go Fish_ with Sir Meta Knight and I was just taking the cards," Bandana Dee replied, waving his stubs frantically. He lifted up his blue bandana, fished around in it, then pulled out a small card box. "See?"

"Oh," Fumu said. _Wait. He keeps stuff in his bandana._

Just as she was pondering over this—since, you know, her brain was not quick to respond, she had a feeling it was the DDD Slime—Bandana Dee kept it hastily. "Well, nice seeing you two!" he yelped as he bolted off down the hallway at super speed.

Kirby watched him run off, awed at his speed. Then, he turned back to Fumu. "_Go Fish_ Met Kni," he said.

Fumu blinked, as looking at Kirby for a whole of four seconds, before slamming her palm on her forehead. "Oh my gosh. You're right! After him!" she commanded, even though it was impossible to keep up with Bandana Dee.

* * *

"Got any fives?" Waddle Doo asked, facing Bandana Dee.

"Go fish," Bandana Dee replied. Frustrated, Waddle Doo drew a card, and after he did, he yelled triumphantly.

Meta Knight was in the corner of the recreation room, roasting marshmallows in a fireplace behind some wooden crates. The recreation room, even though it was called a _recreation room_, was also used for storing items. It was also the place where the people of Castle Dedede could go and have some rest, play games with others, and all that.

"Are those two coming?" he questioned.

"Yup, I specifically said that we were playing with you," Bandana Dee replied.

Suddenly, a waddle dee that was looking out of the window, on guard, started to squeal.

"They're here. Eat your marshmallow already," Bandana Dee sighed. He picked up the bucket of water sitting next to him and jumped over the crates, with the help of some waddle dees. He put out the fire. "Okay, go. I don't really know why you want to escape them anyway."

"It's because the girl they want me to help—"

"Okay, okay, whatever, just go! Keep turning left, you should end up in the storage room. Green is over there."

"Wait, why is _Midori_ in the storage room?"

"Just shut up and go."

The knight shot up the fireplace and began climbing. Somehow. Don't question it. Bandana Dee left the bucket there, then jumped over the crates to see that Fumu and Kirby were opening the door. He immediately jumped back into his _I am playing Go Fish_ position.

"Hi," Fumu said, "is Sir Meta Knight here? I think he was playing Go Fish."

"Sir Meta Knight was here, but he left earlier to do some of his duties," Waddle Doo responded.

"Wait..._duties_? Sir Meta Knight has duties?" Fumu asked.

"Yes, and I really think you should go to bed now, because if you don't know Sir Meta Knight has duties, then your brain is really not working!" Bandana Dee barked, before turning to Waddle Doo. "Got any sevens?"

"Screw you," the cyclops groaned as he handed over his two sevens.

"_Ha_! Got another book!" Bandana Dee yelled as he slapped down four sevens.

"That's your fourth book. I have six books," Waddle Doo deadpanned. "There are three more books to go."

Fumu sighed. "Looks like we'll just have to find Sir Meta Knight again..."

* * *

After crawling through millions of left-turns, Meta Knight dropped down a hole. He was in a place filled with crates, safes, boxes and stuff like that. A green waddle doo was waiting for him. "Ohhhh! And so Sir reaches his destination!" he exclaimed, bouncing up and down, lashing out his iridescent tail.

"Yes, yes, I have," Meta Knight muttered. "You're going to injure someone with that tail of yours, Midori."

"Oh, yeah. One of our waddle dees went to the mailbox earlier." Midori stuffed a truckload of letters in the knight's arms. All of them were labelled _FAN LETTERS._

Meta Knight scanned through them, then came across one of the names. "What are you trying to pull, Techno?" he asked as he looked at your computer/phone screen. "Hey, who are you? A stalker or—"

"Shh!" Midori said.

"Oh yeah... Breaking the—Okay, I get it..."

* * *

What Yirby was ordered to do made him beyond unhappy. The lighthearted yellow puffball wasn't easily made unhappy. Unfortunately, Rirby was an expert at making people unhappy. He was also an expert at threatening people.

Yirby sighed as he sneezed, due to the dust that coated the bookshelf. In only one night, so much dust had gathered, or maybe it had always been there. It didn't matter. Rirby wanted it clean. Spick and span. Not a single spot on it.

Sneezing again, Yirby took a cloth and removed all the books from the shelf. Girby peeked his head out from their bedroom, to check on Yirby.

"I'm fine," Yirby told him, before sneezing again. "Just dusty."

Girby nodded and returned to cleaning up the bedroom, while Rirby was making luncheon meat. Yirby clumsily dropped a book on the cushion chair. Before he picked it up, the yellow puffball turned to Rirby with an uncertain look in his eyes.

"Um," he began, "when did we get that chair?"

"The curious dude gave it to me."

"Looks really old. Wait, curious dude?"

"His name sounded like curious. He collects antiques. He just gave me an antique chair 'with many secrets', so he said..."

"Oh."

The book had fallen slightly underneath the cushion of the chair, so Yirby attempted to lift up the cushion. However, it felt kind of stuck. "Rirby," he whined.

Annoyed, Rirby stalked over. "Well, I tell ya, you're a real flimsy jellyfish."

"Uh-huh."

Rirby set his hands—stubs, actually—on the cushion, then gave a yank. It didn't come off, like what Yirby expected. Rirby huffed. "Okay, flimsy-jelly, pull me when I give ya the signal. On the count of three."

"What?"

"Two."

"Wait, wait."

"_One_."

Frantically, Yirby instinctively yanked Rirby with all his might. Rirby gave it a fierce yank, and the cushion was hurled off, and landed _splat_ on the active stove. They both stared for a while before Rirby yelped.

"Oh crap! The luncheon meat!"

Yirby glanced at the chair to see _two_ books, rather than one. He pulled out both of them. The book he had dropped, and another book which said:

5-19-2-27-10-24 9-12-23-16-16-9

Rirby peeked over. "This one is simple. They always use like, A is 1, B is 2, so on and so forth," he yawned. "Not much of a challenge."

Yirby nodded and took out a piece of paper. After scribbling down a few things, he looked up. "But there is only 26 letters in the alphabet," he said.

"Error?" Rirby suggested. "Maybe it's 26."

...

After a while, Yirby showed the piece of paper to Rirby solemnly.

ESBZJX ILWPPI

"I don't think that's a word," Yirby said.

"Then is must be a different kind of code." Rirby glared at Yirby. "Alright, on with it! Go try and solve it! Oh, and..."

Yirby gulped. "Yes?"

"You _do_ know that we'll have to deal with your problem sooner or later. You can't inhale well, and you can't do much apart from that, other than your supreme mental strength, which will not help us."

"...Y-Yeah. Got it."

* * *

After hours of furious scribbling, Yirby finally sighed. _This is too tough. Don't just drop a bomb and make me decrypt something._ He sighed as he continued to write down possibilities, and trying to work it out.

Then, the door opened to the study room, where Yirby was sitting. Girby entered, pulling someone. "O-Oh, great. I couldn't find Rirby," he sighed. "I found this person outside of our house. He was unconscious, and I thought we might help him."

Yirby glanced at the unconscious being. It was a puffball, slightly similar to Kirby, but it was a sienna puffball. Its eyes were shut close, and it had a jester hat with two branches—green and blue. It looked similar to Beam, now that Yirby thought about it...

"He should wake up soon, since I think he's been out there for quite long."

"How do you know?"

"...I just do, don't ask."

* * *

Fumu panted, but she knew they had finally cornered the knight. After threatening Waddle Doo to get Kirby to inhale him, the spherical cyclops spilled out the information, that Meta Knight actually wanted to _hide_ from them.

_Why does he want to, then?!_ Fumu thought exasperatedly.

"Got you!"

She lunged at her target and grabbed his cloak, causing the knight to stiffen. Kirby jumped from another side, blocking any sort of escape. _Crud,_ Meta Knight thought. _I shouldn't have left the storage room._

Fumu sighed. "Jeez, talk about annoying cloak of yours."

Meta Knight rolled his golden eyes. "It's not really annoying." He looked around for any sort of escape—Kirby had blocked his main escape, so now it was only the sides. Unfortunately, they had caught him in a hallway. Fortunately, a hallway that had two different sides. One was a wall, and another was just fresh air that he could jump straight out into. And die if he couldn't get ready.

And, completely unexpectedly, Fumu yelled, "Midori!"

Footsteps could be heard and suddenly, waddle dees were at the side, armed with spears. Midori walked up, bowing in apology.

"_Sumimasen_. (Sorry.) They threatened me to do it."

"I thought one of Dedede's terms and conditions blatantly stated _soldiers must not give in_," Meta Knight said dryly_._

"I don't think ending up in Kirby's stomach would sound nice either..." Midori muttered.

"But why are you running from us anyway?!" Fumu demanded.

"I wasn't _running_..." Meta Knight began to protest.

"Yes you were! Waddle Doo told me!"

Before Meta Knight could try and deny it again, a strike of lightning forked down from the sky, near Castle Dedede. _Too_ near for comfort. The waddle dees turned to look at it casually, and so did Midori. Since, well, _soldiers must never give in_.

Meta Knight looked at Midori. "Midori, let us go. Now."

Fumu looked at Midori threateningly, and the green waddle doo flinched, curling his tail around him. "U-Uh, sorry, but I really can't do that now..."

This time, lightning struck the place directly where Meta Knight was. Fortunately, he dodged in time, and unfortunately, it left a huge hole. Midori blinked before sheathing his sword.

"Waddle dees, _retreat_!"

"_Matt__e_(wait)—" Fumu began, but they had escaped already.

"So this is where you've been hiding, Meta Knight!"

Meta Knight started running down the hallway, and Fumu and Kirby stared after him. Then, Hikari dropped from the hole, landing just a few inches away from the other hole. Kirby jumped up in surprise. "Poyo!"

"Hikari, I'm sorry, we tried to track him down, but he escaped—"

"I no longer require your assistance!" Hikari looked around fiercely. "Where is Meta Knight?"

"He went that way..." Fumu pointed in the direction Meta Knight had went off to.

Hikari nodded. Before Fumu could run after Meta Knight herself, she was engulfed in a bright, golden light. Then, when Fumu looked back up, Hikari was gone.

After figuring out what just happened, Fumu grabbed Kirby. "Kirby, let's go!"

"Poyo why?"

"I don't know. But I hope I'm not right."

* * *

_..._

_Okay, I just wrote a chapter in the next day. Yay. Give yourself a pat on the back._

_*coughs* Anyway, I wrote the whole thing at like, four in the morning. I kinda woke up, had to do big business, and couldn't get back to sleep. The end. Story over. That's why it might be a bit...blah._

_So, anyway, IS HIKARI A GOOD GUY OR A BAD GUY HM. That is for me to type and for you to read._

_Also, if you haven't caught on already, Hikari and Midori are OCs. Well, that's a duh._

_And the unconscious dude is also an OC. Double duh._

_OH AND I GOT A REVIEW I'M SO PROUD OF MYSELF. **coleypepwars3679**, I LOVE YOU._

_So anyway, review review review, blah blah, and all that drill. I think if I just said the word "review" you'd understand. Right? Right? Great._


	3. The Boggart

_..._

_WHY DID IT TAKE ME SO LONG TO FIND OUT KIRBY SAYS "Hi-ya" WHEN GETTING A SUPER ABILITY?!_

_Also, PSI is like, terrible over here. It was like, 371 yesterday. And now it's somewhere around there. I checked the news. I think it's 400. If I read the correct one, that is._

_Gah. Stupid haze._

_ALSO, TIME FOR ANSWERING REVIEWS. WHY? 'CAUSE._

**_coleypepwars3679_**_: THE FRIENDLY SORT OF WAY. YEESH.  
6/5? IT EXCEEDS THE LIMIT OF REALITY.  
(Psh, Techno. Talk about you and your fantasized reality.)  
_

_Enjoy._

* * *

3: The Boggart

_"I saw a big patch of mud somewhere. What's it for?"_

* * *

The next day, the completely irrelevant sun was shining again. Rirby took his fork and stabbed it through a piece of luncheon meat. He then promptly shoved it in his mouth, chewing on it thoughtfully. ...Well, sure, he didn't have any teeth, so he just swallowed it.

"Is he awake yet?" Rirby would ask every five minutes. Girby would look up from his pacing around and say:

"No, not yet."

Finally, Yirby rushed out of the room. "He's awake! He's awake!"

Rirby, startled by this news, hastily inhaled the remaining pieces of luncheon meat on his plate, then jumped down from his seat and hurried to the room where Yirby had been watching the unconscious...thing. The unconscious thing was awake, staring out of the window.

"Who _are_ you?!" was Rirby's first, rude question towards the unknown thing. The sienna puffball turned his attention to the red puffball.

"Well, I could ask you the same."

"But—we found you unconscious first, so shouldn't we know you first?" Girby said, confused.

"...Well, yes, that's true. My name is Dokeshi. Now, who are you and _where_ did you find me and _how_?" the sienna puffball demanded.

After a brief introduction, Rirby glanced at Girby. "This dude knows."

Girby wrung his hands. "W-Well, I was taking a short walk for some fresh air outside, then I went exploring, since we haven't been here for very long. I just wanted to know this area a little more. So I came across this marsh, a bog, or something like that, then I saw you unconscious lying over there, so I brought you back to nurse you back to, uh, health."

Dokeshi nodded. "Um, okay..."

"So, first, lemme ask you," Rirby cut in, "what _were_ you doing at that bog, marsh, whatever?"

"...It would be easier if I showed you myself. Follow me," Dokeshi said instead, jumping off the bed and out of the room and out of the _entire house_. The three Kirbys ran after him, of course. Well, after Rirby grabbed a tennis racket for extra protection.

After a little of running here and there, and getting lost, they came across a small marsh. Dokeshi strolled over to a patch of mud. "Boggart," he called.

A brown head surfaced on top of the mud. Its black, beady eyes stared straight at them. He raised a large, webbed hand with thick black claws at the end of them on the grass, then pulled himself out. The creature was just a brown seal, or could simply be a seal drenched in mud.

Rirby immediately raised the tennis racket on instinct—and the thing said, "Oi. No need for that."

"Whoops, sorry," Rirby said, lowering the racket.

"Wish you'd put that down. Could hurt someone. So where you _bin_, then?" the creature asked. "Suddenly gone for _hours_. Then come back with weirdos."

Dokeshi pushed Yirby forward. "What is _this_?" Yirby choked out.

"What, you mean _this_? You mean _me_? You mean _Boggart_?" the creature asked.

"U-Um, no, I didn't say that, not at all," Yirby replied.

"Well I did. Boggart. That's me. I'm Boggart. Boggart, the Boggart. Nice name, innit?"

"Well...yes, a lovely name indeed," Yirby answered, not at all sure what to think of it.

The Boggart stared at Dokeshi for a long moment before diving back under the mud. Rirby scrunched up his invisible nose. "So you were at the marsh because of this _Boggart_."

Dokeshi nodded. "Yes. Boggarts don't like the sun a lot, so I came at night. I was looking for my Boggart when I tripped, or something, and something hit me."

"So someone _attacked_ you," Girby concluded.

"And your lovely pet Boggart did _nothing_ about this," Rirby added snappishly.

The Boggart surfaced again. "I don't come on land a lot."

"...Oh yeah, Boggart, take us to that area which you discovered," Dokeshi ordered.

"Aye aye," the Boggart replied, diving under the mud. Just a bit, though, so they could see where the Boggart was traveling. He surfaced once again. "Now, you _followin__'_?"

* * *

"So, what's _happening_?!"

No one answered Fumu's question.

Fuming silently, Fumu shoved Kirby to the right. "This way! Sir Meta Knight went this way, we're not following Hikari."

"Poyo!" Kirby insisted, pointing straight in front, where Hikari had ran.

"Didn't you see? Sir Meta Knight went this way, I saw it with my own eyes."

"Poyo, poyo!" Kirby exclaimed, then dragged Fumu to the front path.

"Don't know what _you're_ saying..."

As they walked on, Fumu began paying more attention to their surroundings, and eventually, after a while, sighed. Kirby let out a cry of joy, before running forward and picking up something. Fumu looked at it carefully. It was a pink USB drive necklace that had the word _Hikari_ written on it in cursive. Fumu looked at it, before gasping.

"This is Hikari's!"

Way to point out the obvious, Fumu.

Fumu grabbed it and threw it around her neck. "Kirby, we've got to find Midori! I remember he has this huge computer. Even if Hikari is chasing Sir Meta Knight, we've got to find out her secret while we can."

"Poyo!"

They dashed down the hallway, past many knocked out waddle dees—that Hikari had knocked out, of course—and came across a bright green door. Fumu pushed it open, yelling, "_Midori_!"

The green waddle doo jumped. "U-Uh, yes?"

"Great! You're here! We found this! This is the intruder's. Dunno why it's pink, but we've got to find out what's inside!" Fumu said impatiently, hurling the USB drive at Midori.

"U-Uh, what?"

"Just open the pink thing, for God's sake!"

* * *

Inside the USB drive was information. Very important information. Midori huffed as he decoded the last number code. "Here it is. It's information. About her. About her allies. About her enemies. About everything she has come across."

"Well, then she's pretty _armed with knowledge_..." Fumu opened a file that read "Hikari". "Why'd she write a profile on herself? Geez... I'll just read it anyway, it contains a good load of information."

"But wait a second. I don't think she'd be as careless as to drop something so important." Midori narrowed his eye."And there's something in the middle. It looks like a switch."

"Well, yeah, you can slide it to make it pop out," Fumu said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "...Wait! There are two sides! Look, one is labeled _I_, and the other is labeled _D_."

"On my way," Midori sighed as he flicked it to the other side. He slot it into the computer again. "This one has no number codes, I wonder why."

"Hm," Fumu said, as she opened a file. She scanned through it. "Oh, I get it... _I_ is for information, and _D_ is for diary."

"Why would she write her _diary_ in a _computer file_?" Midori scoffed.

Fumu sighed. "Kirby, you go find Hikari or Sir Meta Knight. I've got stuff to read here."

"_Poyo_!" Kirby answered, saluting for a mere second before sprinting away.

* * *

"I am not seeing what I am seeing," Rirby groaned as he placed a stub on his forehead. "First I see a Boggart, then we have to slosh through mud for the next hour. Then we come to a clearing with a tree stump in the middle, and you sit down and say _we're done here_."

"I'm tired too, and what was the point of coming all the way over here?" Girby asked wearily, looking behind at the Boggart.

"Because no one is allowed to overhear out conversation," Dokeshi replied. "Now, first of all, you asked me what I was doing at the marsh. I came to see Boggart, simple. I came to see him for one of our _confidential_ meetings. You see, we're actually running from some people. Well, just me, and I sort of brought Boggart into the trouble. We were planning to escape, when I was knocked unconscious, pretty far from Boggart's mud patch."

"You're _running_. From _someone_. You're a _fugitive_," Rirby deducted.

"No, not quite. They're the bad ones, not me. Second of all, I'm sure you're pretty curious where I'm from. Well, I came here from another universe altogether. I came here because I was desperate to run away from the people who were chasing me. I've been on this planet for about two months already, and we've had a lot of close shaves."

"Well, _why_ do they want to hunt you down?" Rirby demanded.

Dokeshi coughed slightly. "Because I have something _they_ want. I won't hand it over to them, of course, because I simply _can't_. I can't tell you what it is, not quite yet, but I will when the time is right."

Rirby scowled. "That's what you _legendary_, _her_o_-like_ people always say. _When the __time is motherfu_—"

"Please, just go on!" Yirby squeaked as he clamped a hand over Rirby's mouth.

"Well, third of all. I am a magician. As usual, magicians can use magic. I am no different. I cast spells and all those magical things. But I don't use it unless I really need to."

"Well, great. It's a magician."

"Fourth of all, is my question. Would any of you like to become my apprentice?"

* * *

"Poy, poy _poyo_!"

"I swear to God, Kirby—"

"_Poyo_, poyo!"

"Okay, fine, I'll come along with you..."

Fumu closed the files. "Midori, please keep watch over the USB drive and the files, I don't want _any_ intruders looking at them," Fumu instructed before taking off out of the room.

Kirby had come back whining, so Fumu guessed he wanted her to come along. Kirby squealed before hurrying off down an unfamiliar hallway. "Never seen this before..." Fumu muttered under her breath.

From Hikari's wild attacks, which were lightning bolts—Fumu had realized that a while ago—the place was a complete mess. Broken hallways, rubble everywhere, and basically, a complete mess. Fumu hoped that her family was alright. (If Dedede was dead, she couldn't really care less.) Kirby expertly jumped over the rocks and broken pillars, which Fumu followed clumsily after, then ran through a hallway filled with weakened waddle dees.

"Gosh, Kirby! Where _are_ you taking me?!" Fumu demanded, almost tripping over a resting waddle dee.

"Poy, poyo!"

"Okay, great." Fumu didn't understand what he just said, but it was evident enough that he would not let her go until she saw what he wanted her to see.

Just while they were running, they ran into Waddle Doo, who was sitting against a half-destroyed wall. "Captain Waddle Doo! What happened?" Fumu asked as Kirby halted.

Waddle Doo shifted slightly, furrowing his brow. "I...I'm not entirely sure. There were a few lightning bolts then my men and I were weakened. Greatly, if I may add. We do not have the strength to get up."

"That's okay, but do you know where the intruder is heading?"

"Down this hallway, they went into _Heika's_ (Your Majesty's) room—"

"Then whoever is in there is in danger!" Fumu yelped. "Kirby, let's go!"

"Poyo, poyo!" Kirby said stubbornly, before running into another room.

"That's Sir Meta Knight's room," Waddle Doo observed. He steadily got up. "Anyway, my men and I shall be off. _Charge_!"

Fumu shook her head wildly, and not staying to watch, she ran after Kirby. He was messing around with Meta Knight's things, poking a few things here and there. Then he grabbed a book sitting on the chair. He smiled brightly and opened to the front page, then removed the note stuck there and passed it to Fumu.

Fumu grabbed it with shaky hands. All it said was:

_Run. I will deal with this myself._

* * *

_Haha. Boring chapter._

_With the Boggart, of course._

_Also, I recently discovered there is a Boggart-thing in "Harry Potter". No, I do not read "Harry Potter", and no, I did not copy it off "Harry Potter". My friend just pointed out that fact. So no, did not copy "Harry Potter"._

_So, that's all. Be nice and review._


	4. The Apprentice

_Blah, so this is the fourth chapter. When Meta Knight** actually** makes another appearance._

_Oh, and I have a thing for people being shoved down rubbish chutes._

_Answering review because I am BORED._

_**coleypepwars3679**: SFNOJBS NO. BAD MARK._

* * *

4: The Apprentice

_Thud._

* * *

If you're wondering, _yes_, Yirby said _yes_ to Dokeshi's question. Why? Because Yirby starts with a Y, and Yes also starts with Y. Get it? Brilliant! You do!

But of course, there are always pros and cons to a situation.

"We are going to do a Transforming Spell."

"What's that?"

"It uses your magic and it takes over the target's appearance, and allows it to morph rapidly into something else, and if you're good, it could also do funny stuff to the target's vocal chords, so they will also sound as to what you wish they would sound like."

"Okay."

Yirby understood none of his fabulous speech, but decided to pretend to listen to it. So far, he had learnt a Cleaning Spell (_yay_, no more flushing toilets or wasting water), and that was all. It had only been a day, after all.

They were in Castle Dedede while training, since, if they blew up, it would be the castle blowing up, not some pretty environment. Rirby and Girby were having a talk at a table with Dedede, Rirby armed with a tennis racket and crossed arms.

"Sit there, and concentrate. After a moment or two later, just say _From blah to blah_, and that will be your spell."

"I feel like doing big business," Yirby said.

"Too bad, wait for later."

Yirby squashed his tiny anger down and sat down in a corner, closing his eyes and concentrating. In the room close by, there was an argument.

"Dedede, I will not let you destroy _any_ part of the land for your—your Royal DDD slime-ball Club!" Rirby said, practically _vibrating_ in anger.

"I don't go by that anymore." Dedede looked proud—or smug. "I use _Royal and Fabulous and Awesome DDD Golf Club_."

"Sounds like a shit name."

Meanwhile, outside, in the hallway, Dokeshi could see Yirby was not getting anywhere. He decided to do what every teacher would do to their apprentice—for magicians, it was called _prodding_.

Yirby had thought of Dedede transforming into something ridiculous. Maybe something Rirby would assault on-sight. (Rirby assaulted many things on-sight.) He wasn't quite sure what he wanted to transform Dedede into, though.

So, the magician started his prodding. "Taking a bit long, don't you think? Can't you hurry up?"

"But, I am, ah..._thinking_."

"Evidently. Thinking too long won't do you any good, I'm afraid."

"But, but—"

"If you're not even going to start, then just forget about the whole thing, will you?"

Something just automatically _snapped_ inside Yirby. Of course, no one can hold their anger for too long. Instantly, an image morphed rapidly in his mind. "_From King Dedede to caterpillar_!" he screeched. Yirby's rage didn't last very long—people like Yirby wouldn't be enraged for too long. "Oops, sorry, I mean..."

Dokeshi nodded. "No, it's fine, that's what was supposed to happen. As for the result, it will take a while, but..." He peeked into the slightly open door. Yirby joined in.

In there, was Rirby, Girby and Dedede arguing. Dedede was being his usual complete selfish ass. "Well, if that's what I want to do, you peasants won't stop me. And you can't whack me either, I'll have my guards to take you."

"You wouldn't _try_," Rirby hissed.

And then, out of the blue, Dedede _poofed_. It was a purple smoke, really, that enveloped him. Rirby suspected he farted purple gas of some sort, but when the purple smoke faded, there sat a caterpillar.

Girby, by instinct, shrieked.

Rirby, by instinct, crushed it.

_WHAM!_

One fierce strike with the tennis racket.

Yirby suppressed his laughter, while the other two Kirbys stood there in confusion. Rirby caught on quickly. "_Yirby_! Thank _God_ you turned him into a caterpillar!" Rirby breathed as he rested the tennis racket on his shoulder. Caterpillar Dedede was crushed, completely unconscious. "Psh, whatever, no one gonna find 'im out for a while. Let's go, Girby."

The two Kirbys left. While Yirby was smiling at his accomplishment, Dokeshi hit him on the back of his head. "Invisibility Spell now."

* * *

"Aagh! It's nearly been a _day_ and we _still_ can't find them!" Fumu growled, outraged. Kirby made a small squeak of surprise but said nothing. "There hasn't been _any_ sort of violence I have seen, but this castle is all destroyed here and there. Wait a second, does Dedede even notice any of these?!"

"Poyo..." Kirby mumbled thoughtfully, looking at the floor as they ran. Then they encountered Bandana Dee, who was running around trying to get his jobs done. "Poy! Poyo!"

"Oh! You two! Great! Waddle Doo has a message for you." Bandana Dee coughed. "Message begins:

_To Fumu and Kirby,_

_The intruder and Meta Knight are no longer in the castle. They have headed out of town. They may be near the Kirbys' house._

_-Waddle Doo_

"Message ends."

"Oh, _jeez_! Thanks, Bandana Dee! Kirby, let's go!" Fumu yelped as they took off.

* * *

Meta Knight panted, and _just_ found refuge from the rampaging Hikari. He had found a marsh, and contemplated hiding (by jumping) in there. However, he realized that he wouldn't be able to stay under there for long, so... Instead, he found a cave under the sloping field. He had dashed inside while hearing Hikari shriek, scream and shout and attack violently outside.

He walked towards a rock and sighed. He was really tired. He gave his injuries a brief glance before breathing in sharply. Hikari could really deal damage, couldn't she? But Meta Knight deserved it. He should not be running.

"You coward! Running and hiding, this isn't what I thought! You're a real _baby_," Hikari yelled from outside. Meta Knight held his breath. _Please, don't come in here._ "Hmph, not here... He must have gone back to the castle."

Meta Knight _would_ have gone back to the castle had he not been so afraid of Hikari's attacks. He caught a glimpse of Hikari running off to the castle. She was so far away now. He sighed, knowing that she wouldn't stop until she could finally see him _dead_.

_I deserve it, don't I?_

_No, you don't. It wasn't your fault THAT happened._

_Look, it's your fault that it happened, but you still need to run._

_Just run. Just hide. You can't do anything else._

_Face the consequences, you coward._

After these conflicting thoughts, something splashed out of the mud. It was a brown seal with webbed hands and sharp, thick black claws.

"Oi," it said, "you're in Master's cave." (Depending on who he's speaking to, he talks differently.)

"O-Oh, your _Master_? I—I apologize, I've just come here for shelter—"

"No. No, it's fine. I'm Boggart, the Boggart. My master is Dokeshi. Sienna puffball with crazy jester hat. Seen 'im?" the Boggart asked.

"No, no I haven't. Again, I apologize, but I really must hide here. There is someone after me, and I..." He was about to say _and I can't die_ but he realized that he _may_ have to face the consequences of his actions. His actions, to you readers, is a secret. Meta Knight growled softly. "...I can't die _yet_." Ah, that sounded better. A lot better.

"Yet. Yet, huh. Of course. People always die o' old age, don't 'ey?" the Boggart said, nodding. "Anyway. No. No. Just stay in there. I'm sure Master won't mind."

Meta Knight nodded, before closing his eyes and tried to get some sleep. He regretted it.

* * *

Meta Knight was in a dark world.

It was just completely black, devoid of any sort of object, except for him. His shadow was a bright white, but it held no comfort for him. He could see a creature forming up ahead. He glanced at it warily. First of all, where in the world _was_ he?!

The creature was a violet puffball with feet even darker and crimson eyes. The creature had black, thick claws, strongly reminding him of the Boggart. It had a long, scaly iridescent tail that reminded him of Midori. It had silver scaly wings. And to top it off, it was grinning a jack-o-lantern smile.

It was what he feared it was.

A demon.

* * *

_Okay, so this is a shorter chapter. SHUDDAP. DON'T TELL ME HOW LONG I HAVE TO TYPE A CHAPTER._

_I would have written more, but I found this an appropriate place to stop._

_Anyway, so please review and the usual drill. Bye. 'Til next time._


	5. The Demon

_HAHA SO ANOTHER CHAPTER._

_WHY AM I LAUGHING? I ALSO DON'T KNOW THAT._

_I could only update because I could go to the library and type stuff._

_**coleypepwars3679**: CRUD. CRUD. THE MARK IS GOING TO BE NEARLY TWICE AS BIG AS THE MAXIMUM. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO._

* * *

5: The Demon

_"If you have a demon stuck in your mind, you can never fully get rid of it."_

* * *

"Who _are_ you?!" Meta Knight demanded, unsheathing Galaxia and pointing it threateningly at the demon.

"Oh, calm _down_, child, you're overreacting," the demon said smoothly, with the voice of a female's. She extended one of her claws and flicked Galaxia out of his grip effortlessly. "Honestly, though, you're too weak right now..."

"_Me_? _Weak_?" Meta Knight spluttered, before looking back at his fallen sword. _No. This isn't good. This demon can flick Galaxia out just too easily. I'm definitely not strong enough to defeat this demon..._ "So, who _are_ you?"

"First of all, I assume you can recognize me as a demon," the demon yawned, retracting her claw to its usual length. "If you can't, then I must have picked a really stupid creature. But of _course_ you can recognize me as a demon."

Meta Knight winced. "And how would _you_ know?" _I need to get Galaxia without her knowing, but how can I do that?_

The demon rolled her eyes lazily. "Because, _child_, I can read your mind, isn't that obvious enough?"

The knight did not believe her at all. "Oh _really_?" He dug through his mind for something that rarely anyone knew. "What's my favorite food?"

"_Ha_," the demon snorted, lashing her tail. "Of course. That's so simple. You pretend to like mushroom quiches, but you like blueberry pie, especially the one Kirby makes. Which is, to me, the most _disgusting_ thing, right next to smelly socks."

"Favorite drink." He hoped he didn't make it that obvious.

The demon stared at Meta Knight, before striding up to him and placing both of her stubby hands on the side of him, lifting him up to her eye level—since, she was floating, flying—and staring at him right in his eye as if she was _piercing right through his soul_. She let him drop after a while.

"You pretend it's fruit punch. But you like blueberry smoothie. And you just _love_ blueberries, don't you?" The demon flicked her tail and dusted her hands, as if Meta Knight was infested with germs. "There. Now do you believe me?"

"_Fine_, I believe you can rummage through my mind as you like. Now, tell me your name, will you?"

The demon stayed silent for a while, before replying. "Miinyx."

Meta Knight frowned. "Sounds like minx."

"That's because that's what demons are named after. Insults. Of course, demons don't really care about that, and I can think of many things to call you, child, so don't make me," Miinyx said.

"Can't you disturb me _even_ when I'm conscious?"

"Of course I can. But you'll get distracted, I know. You won't listen to me. So I have to grab your full attention."

Meta Knight rolled his eyes. "Okay, so apart from introducing yourself, what else do you want?"

Miinyx clapped her hands together. "_Clever Meta Knight_!" She made his name sound like it was the worst thing you could ever hear. "I do realize you have a foe that is after you, and if you die, I die as well. Because I simply _won't_ leave you alone. So, if you need it, give me a call."

"I _won't_ ever use you. You're practically the same as a demon beast," Meta Knight growled.

"Nuh-uh-uh. Demon beasts are created from Nightmare. Demons are like normal beings—they reproduce and live. They're perfectly normal, except we're a lot stronger than _you_ are," Miinyx told him flatly. "Now, never mind if you die. I'll just escape the moment you're about to die, but that would be a shame."

She snapped her claws and Meta Knight blacked out.

* * *

"Sir Meta Knight!" Fumu called, running around. Then, she and Kirby came across a marsh. Not just a marsh, but the three Kirbys were sitting there, just chatting. Fumu mustered up all her courage and walked up to them. "I don't feel like an argument, but have you seen Sir Meta Knight?"

"Oh! Hi!" Yirby greeted cheerfully. Yirby was the only one that wasn't too hostile towards Fumu. "Anyway, no, we haven't seen Meta Knight at all..."

"As _if_," Rirby scoffed, kicking his feet. "There are _loads_ of places to hide around 'ere. Caves and all. Surely he's just hidden somewhere here? I don't know, ask the Boggart. He sees _everything_."

"Oh, that's right. Master Dokeshi has a cave around here. It's a very big cave, and it's easy to access, so your friend might have gone there. He is probably very tired, so he didn't have the strength to go to the other hard-to-access caves," Yirby exclaimed.

Fumu breathed in. "Okay. Thanks." She grabbed Kirby and darted off to find that cave. "Enough of this wild goose chase already..." she groaned.

Kirby immediately shouted and Fumu halted. There was a cave over there. "Poyo!"

"Hold it. I'm afraid ya goin' into Master's cave," a voice said. Fumu turned around and sighed.

"I'm guessing you must be the Boggart. Well, we're not his pursuers, I promise. We just want to find Meta Knight, because we need to protect him." Fumu paused, unsure of what to say next. "If you don't believe us, why don't we stand out here and call him? He'll come out for sure."

"Poyo!" Kirby called, cupping his hands around his mouth.

Slowly, Meta Knight appeared in the cave, walking very slowly. Fumu gasped at his injuries. "Oh, it's you two."

The three Kirbys hopped over, and Girby jumped on top of Kirby. "Oh, so you found your friend! ...But uh, what's up with the injuries he has?"

"He's been chased by someone, and I don't know why." Fumu's eyes shone with worry. Rirby scoffed again, but she ignored him. "Actually, could you tell us why, Sir Meta Knight? I really don't understand what's going on anymore..."

"...Fumu, have you found Hikari's USB drive? I'm sure I got it off her neck in the castle," Meta Knight said, instead of replying to her question.

"Eh? Well, yeah, I did. I've also downloaded the files on Midori's computer," Fumu told him. "It has information about people and her diary."

"Okay, good. I don't want _anyone_ to read them, is that clear? I'm the only one who has access to it. It may contain some very important information, and some of them you must not read," Meta Knight said, slowly walking out of the cave. He sighed heavily. "But to get there, it will be very hard for me."

"I'm sure," Rirby snapped. "Yirby, do you magic thing on him."

"But I haven't been taught any Healing Spells yet. And if _you_ know, then why don't _you_ do it?" Yirby said with a slight glare.

Rirby shrugged. "Well, whatever. Problem is, Hikari's going to wander around here for a long time, until she thinks you're on the other side of the world." They agreed with this statement, much to Rirby's pleasure.

Fumu sighed. "We must still get to the castle. We don't know what's going on there, and as long as we conceal Meta Knight, we'll be fine," she said. "Does anyone have something we can use to disguise ourselves?"

* * *

They ended up using a long, brown cloak to hide Meta Knight as they walked. They were sitting on top of each other, Yirby at the top. Meta Knight was walking in the cloak. It was a rather good disguise for people with intelligence like theirs.

Rirby was at the bottom, since he had the most physical strength. It was really simple for him to carry all of their weight. Fumu groaned, as she too had to sit in the stack. This was the list, from bottom to top: Rirby, Girby, Fumu, Kirby, Yirby. They were walking back to Castle Dedede.

"Left turn, and we're in," Yirby whispered to them. Girby had sharp hearing and relayed the message to Rirby. This was how they walked.

They were in the half-destroyed castle. Yirby could see Hikari running up and down, trying to look for her target. "Hello there," Yirby said, slightly altering his voice with the help of his magic. "Who might you be?"

Hikari thought they were just a normal resident. "My name is Hikari, and I seek Meta Knight. If you know where he is, tell me and I will stop destroying this castle."

Yirby lifted a brow. "Unfortunately, I have not seen him. But I beg of you, please stop destroying the castle. It is home to many."

Hikari huffed. "Are you _sure_ you haven't seen him?"

"Well..." Yirby quickly thought up of something believable. "One of my friends said that Meta Knight escaped to another dimension using his ship, the Halberd. It was a dimension with rectangular-shaped planets. I believe he went to the orange rectangular planet."

"Oh, really? Well, that Meta Knight is such a chicken... Even escaping to the dimension Recta... Anyway. Thank you for your cooperation," Hikari said, before running out of the castle.

"Close one," Rirby murmured. "Good thinking, Yirby."

They entered Meta Knight's room, which had not been touched yet. Hikari must have known Meta Knight would hide anywhere but his room. "Okay, we can quit this blah formation," Rirby exclaimed, and they all dropped.

Fumu panted. "That was tiring. I mean, having two Kirbys on top of me..."

"It's about time you came."

"Huh?!" Fumu whirled around, and got in a defensive position.

On top of the fireplace, sat a girl. She was not the Fumu kind of girl, but a girl as in a human girl as in a human that we all are. Apart from her long brown hair, she was _nothing_ like any of them were. Fumu gasped.

"Who are you?!" she demanded, a common question asked in this story.

The girl flipped her hair behind her shoulder before jumping down. "I'm here to do what I'm supposed to do."

"Then _what_ are you supposed to do?!" Fumu questioned shakily.

"Well, that is, Fumu, a very obvious thing. I have come here for Meta Knight," the girl responded. "Let's see..." She whipped out her cellphone, then typed in some letters and scrolled through a few things. "He broke the fourth wall in chapter two."

"What?!" Fumu yelled again.

"That's enough, Fumu. I've only come here for a short while, to so-call do what Meta Knight deserves."

"Who are you?!"

"Pft, so annoying. Can't exactly tell you _who_ I am, but you can call me TD."

Fumu and the others backed up against the wall. "Well, TD, we're trying to escape from our enemy, so please just _delay_ whatever you're going to do!"

TD stretched. "No can do, I'm afraid. I've already delayed it for two chapters." She snapped her fingers, and a bunch of Bombers surrounded Meta Knight.

"TD, you _won't_ get away with this!" Fumu shrieked.

"Poyo, poyo!" Kirby agreed fiercely. The other three Kirbys had escaped through a secret passageway to defend themselves from the Bombers, who were about to explode.

"But I will. You'd better get away, because by the time I'm gone—which is very soon—the Bombers will have exploded."

"We'll just—Kirby, _inhale them_!"

Kirby nodded and opened his mouth wide and began sucking in everything. Meta Knight held his ground, and so did the Bombers. TD was watching, amused.

"What?! Why can't they be inhaled?" Fumu demanded, turning accusingly to TD.

"Because I've made it like that."

"TD, who on _Popstar_ are you?"

TD clapped her hands together. "Easy! Fumu, are you religious? Like, you have a god or whatnot?"

Fumu nodded slowly. "Yes... I think our god is called Nova or something..?"

"Well, I'm like the step above him. All of my wishes are all of your commands. I _control_ you. Goodbye." TD waved nonchalantly as she disappeared with a burst of flames.

And promptly, the Bombers blew up.

Fumu screamed and pushed Kirby back. After the smoke cleared, Meta Knight was there, standing there _alive_ but fazed and slightly injured. "Meta Knight! ...is... _alive_?" Fumu gasped again. "Oh my—whoever that _TD_ person is, she is so..._argh_!"

"It's alright, I'm fine Fumu," the knight reassured both Fumu and Kirby. The other three Kirbys who had escaped peeked out. "And you guys are fine, too. It was fine of you to escape when the Bombers were going to blow up..."

"Why didn't you defend yourself, Meta Knight? TD was telling lies, wasn't she? Who is she really?" Fumu asked.

"I didn't speak because if I did, I would end up in more Bombers. And no, I don't think she was." He paused at the last question. "And she is what she claims to be, I believe."

* * *

_Bomber = the enemy that walks off an edge and explodes when it touches the ground. Those bombs, you know?_

_TD = TechnoDee_

_..._

_HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. WHO SAID I COULDN'T SLOT MYSELF IN FOR A CHAPTER OR TWO? HA. (By the way, if you didn't figure it out by the time I said "I'm like the step above him", I think your brain isn't working or something.)_

_BUT. BUT. This chapter is completely NEEDED for you to read. Miinyx, the demon of Meta Knight's mind—WHO IS FEMALE. FEMALE.—, was introduced, Hikari has gone off to another dimension to look for Meta Knight. See? If you skipped this chapter, you would know nothing about Miinyx, except her appearance. Which, was in the last chapter._

_So, anyway, please review. Have a nice day. Goodbye._


	6. The Stone

_I'M BACK READERS! After a short break, of course._

_**coleypepwars3679**: O.O NO! THIS IS BEYOND MY FANTASIZED REALITY. MUST...COMPUTE... *splits in half**self-destructs*  
Dear readers. We are sorry to say that "TechnoDee" has passed away. Please leave a short prayer before reading her last chapter.  
_

_By the way guys, if you spot any errors, PLEASE DO INFORM ME IMMEDIATELY I WILL CHANGE IT! I'm a bit careless even when I proofreading... So just tell me nicely, okay? Thanks._

_ANYWAY ENJOY!_

* * *

6: The Stone

_"Um...just a random stone."_

* * *

"Hikari will be back eventually. She'll find out Yirby lied to her," Fumu said as they sat down. The waddle dees had started the repairing of the castle. "But... Why was Hikari after you, Meta Knight? What could it be this time?"

"...The time is not yet right to say, Fumu. I will explain another time. But for now, I must tend to my injuries. I do not want to walk in that hideous disguise again, however reliable," Meta Knight said. "I will head to my own room, and if you need me, just call."

Of course, he would never take of his mask in front of them, so he had to go to his own room.

Meta Knight headed into his own room, staring at the vanity. He removed his mask slowly (after making sure the door was locked), and stared at his face.

_Everyone thinks I'm so great and powerful. But when they see this face..._ Meta Knight shook his head. _They will only think I am a weakling._ He started tending to his injuries, when a voice began disturbing him.

"_So you're afraid they will deem you 'weak', is it not?_"

_Miinyx. Just. Go. Away._

"_But you see, I'm stuck with you now, so you can't make me go away,_" the demon taunted from inside his mind. Somehow, somewhere, he saw her, like he saw her in another part of his consciousness. It was kind of hard to explain, but he knew she was doing it. She was lying down and lashing her tail.

_This sucks._

"_Yeah, don't you think so? Should I just call you over so you can see me solidly?_"

_No thank you._

Miinyx snorted. "_That's what I thought, but see, I'll just do it myself, then._"

Meta Knight felt as if something just burst out of him. He turned around wildly to see Miinyx sitting on his bed contentedly, licking her claws. He was not completely solid, he could tell. She was translucent.

As if noticing he noticed that, Miinyx smiled smugly. "My form is not so used to this world, but I will eventually solidify properly, don't you worry." Meta Knight did not like that. And as if _on cue_, he just realized that his mask was not on.

Immediately, the knight shielded his face, scared of showing it even further to Miinyx. "Well, can't I have a tiny part of privacy, Miinyx?"

"You don't have any privacy." This was an obvious statement. "I've been rummaging through your mind for the past few hours, days, weeks, perhaps even years." She laughed. "Trying to hide you face now? No point. I already know it from a long time ago. I've always wondered _why_ you've worn that _mas__k_, though."

"...You don't know?"

"That's hard to find out. You've kept that information locked away for years. It's like a handle being turned rusty. I just can't get enough information to know why, though I could guess," Miinyx yawned. "Ah, such a long time since I've been out... Perhaps five hundred years, who knows."

"You're _that_ old?"

"Demons are always old. They live up to more than a million years. Million years is considered _young_. Now, I'm hungry," Miinyx sighed. "I guess I should go hunting before I return, then." The demon was about to shove open the window.

What if Miinyx hunted an innocent waddle dee, or an innocent villager? Meta Knight's eyes widened. No. No. No. "No, you can't... I'll go get some food, okay? Meat. Just wait here a minute."

He put a hand on the door handle, when Miinyx laughed. "You serious? You don't even have your mask on yet."

The knight whirled around and quickly grabbed his mask from the vanity. He put it firmly on his face. "Of course. Now, Miinyx, please stay here and do not cause any trouble in my room—or anywhere, for that matter—and just wait."

"Will do," Miinyx said in a falsely sweet tone. Obviously, she probably planned on destroying his room while he was away. Meta Knight didn't really mind. There wasn't much to his room.

* * *

Hikari sighed as she headed towards the dimension Recta. Couldn't her stupid ship move any faster?! She had been so close to Meta Knight and she could finally achieve her goal! But no, he had escaped while she was looking for him.

It only just occurred to her, how could she have missed such a huge ship flying in the sky?

_It's just me,_ Hikari thought to herself. _I'm imagining things._

She sighed and typed up a full diary entry for her USB drive diary, and she placed a hand at the base of her neck.

Nothing.

Hikari gasped and looked down. Her usual necklace USB drive _was not_ hanging from her neck like usual. It was gone. She didn't have it. The girl began furiously digging for it, seeing if she dropped it anywhere. Meanwhile, she decided to leave the computer on to save her diary entry.

_It's lost!_ Hikari thought in dismay. _I must have dropped it back on Popstar..._ Huffily, she turned the ship around. _My diary is more important. I can have my revenge later, afterwards._

* * *

Miinyx had chomped on the beef and contentedly returned to Meta Knight's mind and stayed silent. The knight was satisfied with this—he simply needed _privacy_ now, and that was all. It was not so after about a few hours when Fumu urgently called him.

"Yes, Fumu?" he asked as he stepped out of his room.

"I think—I think Hikari has contacted Dedede. She must have said something to make Dedede to agree to kill you, because now he's trying to kill you. You're not safe anymore. Dedede will eventually look for you here," Fumu said, looking upset.

Girby ran back from his eavesdropping position. "You know how Dedede always wants to humiliate Kirby?" Yes, after a while, Dedede did not want to kill Kirby anymore. He was more intent on humiliating the infant Star Warrior now, if you've been watching the anime _closely_ and _carefully_. "Hikari told Dedede Meta Knight is always in the way of Dedede's plans, so he must first get rid of Meta Knight. Locking him up is no good. She said we would break him out."

Fumu gasped as her hand flew to her mouth, not expecting to hear that. "Well, we really have to escape, then!" she said, looking rather distressed. Even Rirby understood how grave the situation was—if Fumu made such a remark, and the red puffball could not be bothered to make an irritating response, then he really did understand how grave it was. And therefore, everyone should understand how grave it was.

"But the Halberd's been destroyed...or something... I know Meta Knight was trying to build a new one, but it isn't complete yet, is it..?" Yirby sighed.

"Dedede. He just passed the room," Girby whispered as he looked out of their peephole. "We have to find a way, and _quickly_."

"Well, duh!" Fumu growled. "Of course, we can't use that slow disguise anymore. Dedede is more used to his surroundings than Hikari. We have to escape through the windows."

"But we're so high up," Rirby pointed out, crossing his arms as he put a few furniture in front of the door so Dedede couldn't get in even if he tried. And by the way, the peephole is on the wall next to the door. Strange, huh. "We Kirby's can't hold anyone for much long, unless they're _super light_. In which case, you guys are not. Jumping is not an option."

Fumu nodded. "Yeah, okay. Meta Knight, do you have a rope?"

The knight paused. "No, I do not. And a rope is too slow. Dedede will be able to catch up with us, and probably, while we're halfway down climbing, pull the rope down or something ridiculous like that."

"But it will work," Yirby added.

"But it will work," Meta Knight allowed grumpily.

"So what can we do?" Fumu asked in dismay.

Rirby looked around and scanned the room. "Why not use that convenient telephone over there and call Midori, Waddle Doo or Bandana Dee? They're obviously supporting us, since they haven't attacked yet. None of the waddle dees have attacked."

Girby frowned slowly. "Well, Dedede might want to do it by himself... But either way, yes, we can get their help."

"Definitely. Great. I'll call them. You guys just wait for a while." Fumu proceeded to call them.

Kirby bounced up and down. "Poyo, poyo!" he exclaimed happily.

Yirby sighed. "No, Kirby, we're going to die. You're not supposed to be happy."

"Poyo?"

"Never mind."

After a few minutes, Fumu nodded as she put down the phone. "They said alright. They'll send waddle dees to help us out of the castle."

Rirby frowned. "What if it's a plan by Dedede? We won't be able to escape, then."

"No, they're completely on our side. Besides, those three aren't completely fond of the great king himself," Fumu said with a smug smirk. "Oh, hey, Kirby, what's that?" she asked.

Yirby turned to look. Kirby was holding a yellow stone. "Oh, that. I just randomly found it. I gave it to Kirby so he could remember me. See? _Yellow stone_."

"Verrow ston," Kirby replied happily.

_But...it seems a lot more than just a stone..._ Fumu thought, frowning. _I guess the only thing I can do is wait and see._

* * *

They packed some bags before they decided they would head down to the three Kirbys' house first so they could pack. As the waddle dees escorted them out of the castle, suddenly, Bandana Dee caught up with them at super speed. "Please! Stop! I have a message for you," he said, almost breathless. He had been running around a lot lately, Fumu noticed.

"Yes, Bandana?"

"Thanks for slowing down. Ta." Bandana Dee adjusted his bandana. "Anyways, Midori said there's a demon beast in the castle. But, Your Stupidity and Escargon are also out of the castle searching for you. Speaking of Escargon, Waddle Doo just prepared some escargot. And Midori's gonna eat them all, so, goodbye. Ta." He bowed before scurrying off.

_There's a demon beast in the castle, but they're outside._ Meta Knight seemed to ponder over this. "Let us just head outside, since a demon beast sounds a lot more fierce than Your Majesty...and Escargon."

Fumu nodded in agreement.

They walked down to the three Kirbys' house, and they packed their bags. Well, actually packed their rucksacks, since they used rucksacks. They stayed in the house for a while, before Rirby tackled Yirby with a question.

"Say, where's that master of yours?"

"Dokeshi? Oh, well, he's, um, in...in his cave, near the Boggart."

"Why isn't he teaching you? Aren't you still his Apprentice?"

"Well, yes, I am, of course. But he just left me a spell book and told me that _I saw the future. It would be best if you learn for yourself from now_. Perhaps he means this. Because he can't leave the Boggart, and we have to leave," Yirby said.

"Then why don't you learn a Healing Spell already?" Rirby asked.

Yirby's eyes widened. "Oh! I never thought of that..."

Rirby rolled his eyes. "'Course you didn't. Well, as long as you learn it and we can heal Meta Knight's injuries so he's in top condition again, then it's fine."

Meta Knight nodded in agreement from a corner of the room. He looked out of the window. "The Beaver Offices is around that pond," he noted.

Girby tilted his head. "Um what? Well, yes, that is true. The beavers there occasionally help us. Why?"

"They're very useful. They can heal injuries. But probably not mine. They're from Hikari's attacks, so it's kind of hard to treat, because of the foreign ability. If you haven't noticed yet, she can make the weather cloudy and create a thunderstorm, and she was trying to hit me with lightning."

"Well, true—"

Suddenly, the door flung open, revealing Dedede. Dedede had a gun in his hands.

"How did you _get_ that?" Rirby demanded.

"Meet your end, Meta Knight," Dedede said, smirking.

Many things happened at once.

Yirby was furiously trying to remember the Disarming Spell, Kirby, Rirby and Girby were inhaling and trying to inhale whatever bullet Dedede shot, Fumu was screaming (not the most useful), and in Meta Knight's mind, Miinyx was screaming, "_Let me out! Let me out THIS INSTANT!_"

And Meta Knight himself simply froze.

"Don't try inhaling it," Dedede stated. "This gun and its bullets can't be inhaled."

Finally, Dedede shot.

Yirby finally spluttered out the Disarming Spell.

The bullet was out of the gun, aiming towards Meta Knight, who was basically just paralyzed with fear (maybe that was part of the gun's power. Hm...) and couldn't do anything. He wasn't one to be frozen with fear. But he was. (So maybe it _was_ the gun's power.)

Dedede had shot the bullet and it was coming towards Meta Knight as fast as the speed of light. Yirby had spluttered out the Disarming Spell. So many conclusions, but only _one_ could come true.

So just _what_ was going to happen?

* * *

_Okay, guys, just so you know. This is far from the finale, okay? So don't panic. It's just one of those OH MY GOD WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN also known as, a cliffhanger. Oh my gosh, do I love cliffhangers._

_(YES. I LOVE CLIFFHANGERS. I LOVE TYPING THEM AND READING THEM. GOT A PROBLEM? *slips on sunglasses and does the LIKE A BOSS face*)_

_Anyway, please review, don't flame! Thanks for reading!_

_(BTW **coleypepwars3679** I HAVE BEEN REVIVED FROM THE DEAD. SO I'M NO LONGER DEAD. HA!)_


	7. The Silver Bullet

_So, now you are relieved you may read past that cliffhanger, aren't you?_

_(YOU ARE. ADMIT IT. IT'S A FACT OF LIFE.)_

_**coleypepwars3679**: Phew. *wipes sweat* Thank God._

* * *

7: The Silver Bullet

_"A silver pistol and a silver bullet...spells trouble."_

* * *

The bullet was flying fast, and only now, Rirby discovered that Dedede was holding a silver pistol.

_Oh crud..._

He knew he had to get the silver pistol away from Dedede. And fast.

Before anyone could do anything, the bullet plunged straight into Meta Knight's mask, somewhere at the bottom of his forehead.

This caused many reactions.

Even while Yirby had spluttered the Disarming Spell, and the silver pistol had clattered onto the floor, the silver bullet had been shot already, therefore it could not be stopped anymore. Yirby had learned a Medical Cleaning Spell, ridding the person of whatever foreign substances there was. Of course, he was kind of weak, so it could not clean off very detailed things. Like, perhaps things in your blood.

But he could definitely clean off a bullet.

Before Dedede could pick up the silver pistol and shoot at Meta Knight again, Rirby leapt down right in front of Dedede, delivered a kick in his face and picked up the silver pistol. He checked the bullets; there were two remaining silver bullets. It had the word "MK" carved on them.

_Oh god..._

He remembered a very useful piece of information the Boggart had told him.

_"If you see silver bullet, got ya name carved on it, dangerous. Silver bullets always find their target."_

_"Silver bullets always find their target."_

Which meant, a silver bullet would always aim for the heart.

But it had not shot Meta Knight's heart.

Unbeknownst to him, Miinyx had actually managed to slap the silver bullet away and changed its direction. However, since he was still shot, the demon was now stuck in his mind, unable to come out, as if she were in a cage. She was locked away in another part of his mind, unable to come out.

A silver pistol and a silver bullet.

MK stood for Meta Knight.

Fumu was shrieking and shaking Meta Knight, whose eyes had dulled to a dull yellow. Yirby was muttering a Medical Cleaning Spell, trying to get the bullet out. Girby was just worrying and taking out medical items.

Rirby stared at the two silver bullets.

_"If they eaten, they give the eater really bad stomach ache. Could die. Silver bullets are only meant to be shot. You cannot use them for anything else."_

The Boggart's somewhat wise words came to him.

_Then I can only make sure the silver pistol does not fall into the wrong hands._ Rirby knew a silver bullet required a silver pistol for shooting, otherwise the silver bullet would not find its target.

"Have you gotten the bullet out yet?" Rirby asked anxiously.

"Yes, I have, but he doesn't show any sign of regaining consciousness..." Yirby sighed heavily. "I'm—I'm trying to do a Healing Spell, but it's not exactly working."

"...What about his brain?"

"It was very close to his brain. He's in critical condition."

Suddenly, Meta Knight's eyes flickered to that wise, bright gold again, albeit weak. "Find...Galacta...Knight..." he said slowly, then his eyes dulled again.

Kirby was in a corner, clutching the yellow stone. He walked up to Meta Knight, and tried hard to pronounce the word.

"Poyo find Galacta."

He didn't bother to say the knight, because he knew Meta Knight would know what he meant.

Even if he was unconscious and was at death's door.

* * *

Rirby shoved the silver pistol at the very bottom of his rucksack. He would give it to Meta Knight once the knight regained consciousness.

Then, he something familiar.

Too familiar.

It was as if it was a shooting star, but Rirby knew better.

He ran towards it.

* * *

"Where's the silver pistol, the one Dedede used to shoot Sir Meta Knight?" Fumu asked in a very annoying businesslike tone. "We need to make sure Dedede doesn't have any more guns! In fact, where did he get it from?"

"Maybe he got it from Hikari..." Girby mused. "Who is Galacta Knight, anyway?"

"Probably a knight, just like Sir Meta Knight..." Fumu suggested, placing a palm on her cheek, and set that arm on her other arm. "I'm not quite sure, but Rirby went off a while ago. I think he might have gone to find Galacta Knight."

"Poyo," Kirby said, for no particular reason, throwing his yellow stone up and down. Yirby looked up at it.

"Kirby, please stop playing with that. It could accidentally hit Meta Knight," Yirby sighed.

The yellow stone promptly fell on Meta Knight's injured spot. It was as if the yellow stone was provoked by Yirby's words.

Horrified, Fumu immediately bent down to swipe it, until she saw a faint, gold glow emitting from the yellow stone. She gasped slightly. "What is wrong with that stone of yours, Kirby..?" Fumu demanded.

"Poyo don't know." Kirby slowly picked up the yellow stone, and when Yirby inspected Meta Knight's injured area, he himself gasped.

"Hey! The wound's healed up slightly. Albeit just a little." Yirby prodded the wound, causing Meta Knight to screech rather loudly. "Oops, sorry. Wait, he's conscious? That doesn't...make any sense..." After a little while of thinking, Yirby nodded. "Oh, he must have just felt it...so he yelled...even if he's unconscious."

The door flung open. Fumu screamed like the girly girl she was, then calmed when she saw Rirby at the door with a serious, no-nonsense expression on his face. Fumu smiled uncertainly.

Rirby took a deep breath in, raised his hand into the air slowly, and stepped in the house. Followed by him, was a blue Kirby.

_Gosh_.

"I present to you, Birby," Rirby said, looking at Birby cautiously. Birby gave a bright, cheerful and energetic smile.

"_Hi_! I'm Birby." Then, he paused and turned around. "Now, Rirby, what do I do with this dude over here?"

"What dude?" Girby asked curiously.

"This dude," Rirby said, dragging the dude inside. "I suspect it is Galacta Knight."

* * *

It turned out Birby was a cheerful, energetic but sly and cunning all at the same time. This pleased all of them greatly; he was not annoying, at least. Meta Knight managed to wake up after more healing from the suspicious yellow stone that Kirby still held tightly in his grip.

Galacta Knight, however, was bruised, beaten up, bloodied, and unconscious.

Yirby was tending to him, saying that Galacta Knight was still alive. They had put Galacta Knight in a hidden room, saying that they should not let Meta Knight know Galacta Knight was here yet, since Galacta Knight was still unconscious.

Meanwhile, the three Kirbys had actually managed to merge all of their starships together to create one big one. Rirby was currently merging Birby's as well. They would soon use the ship—the Super-Starship, it was called—to travel around Popstar efficiently and quickly and worst come to worst, leave Popstar.

Everything was going plenty well, when Girby came back one day, screaming that Hikari was back.

Birby had listened to their story, so he knew what was going on. They opened up the Super-Starship, which was quite big and could fit all of them and still had excess space, and Fumu dragged Galacta Knight along. The pink knight was still unconscious, much to their dismay. They managed to keep him out of Meta Knight's sight until Meta Knight came on the ship.

"Galacta Knight," he murmured. "Why did you not tell me you were nursing Galacta Knight? I asked for you to find her."

"Poyo sorry..." Kirby whispered.

"_Sorry_ is not going to rewind time and make you do the correct thing!" Meta Knight fumed. He unsheathed Galaxia, his fury blinding him, when he felt a sharp pain in his forehead. He fell backwards, groaning. "Looks like I'm not completely healed..."

"No you're not," Yirby replied as the Super-Starship rose into the air. "So just keep calm. Galacta Knight is here, so don't make any fuss. He's been unconscious for the past few days."

"Then heal her," Meta Knight pointed out, and crossed his arms indignantly after sheathing Galaxia.

"We've been _trying_, Sir Blind," Rirby retorted.

Then they paused, and processed the information.

"_**Galacta Knight is a girl**_?!"

Yirby's shrill squawk caused everyone on the Super-Starship to jump—including Galacta Knight. Yirby rarely screamed, and now he was, which was indeed a very rare sight. The yellow puffball coughed slightly. "A-hem, pardon me. What I meant to say is, I did not know Galacta Knight was a girl."

Meta Knight nodded, slightly fazed. "Well, uhm, I never told you..."

Suddenly, they had a pink lance pointing at them—except for Meta Knight. All of them froze when they saw it was Galacta Knight, except for Rirby, who scowled, glared at the pink knight, and made a stance that screamed _YOU WANNA FIGHT BRO__?!_.

"Who are you?! What am I doing here?! Why am I here?! Did you kidnap us?!"

* * *

_LOL. Love how Rirby's all like YOU WANNA FIGHT BRO. Don't ask me WHY I put it there..._

_Yes, I made Galacta Knight a girl. It is heavily hinted that he is a MAN. In fact, he IS a man. However, in my fantasized reality, Galacta Knight is NOT a man, so I win, you lose, Galacta Knight is a girl._

_Please review, no flaming!_


	8. The Robot

_Oh gosh! Haven't updated in a while. Die. I die. DIE._

_Oh by the way, why is Galacta Knight a female? ...If I made Galacta Knight a boy, that'd just be so...sexist...Imeanseriously._

_**coleypepwars3679**: SO...the other fifty must be Galacta Knight is a boy, which means you don't care, which means HA.  
Bah, ze credits. I just go eat something while the credits are playing...  
OMG EIGHT HOURS MY MOM WOULD BE LIKE "nooo Techno don't play for so long" then she bans me. (Psh, of course she didn't call me Techno. But YOU are not to know my real name.)  
OH NO. *drops to the ground*  
_

* * *

8: The Robot

_"It's...such a sad thing..."_

* * *

"You are _not_ going to assault us! _Never_!"

"Hang on, Galacta Knight. W-We just kind of picked you up and healed you. I-I'm Fumu..."

"Poyo, poyo!"

"U-Um, I'm s-sorry... But w-we a-aren't k-kidnappers, r-really!"

"No, we are not the kidnappers! Can you just listen to our story?"

Now, if you _haven't_ identified who's speaking, here's the order: Rirby, Fumu, Kirby (well duh), Girby and Yirby. Meta Knight stayed silently in a corner, not knowing what to do.

Rirby, however, was completely full-attack-_YOU DIE_ mood. He lunged straight at Galacta Knight and ripped off her lance. It clattered on the floor where Yirby picked it up carefully and slowly.

"We are _not_ your kidnappers, _not_ your attackers, and _not_—"

"You lie!" Galacta Knight used her shield and did some...wave-thing. Immediately, Rirby was blown back, but Yirby held the pink lance firmly in his grip. "You better give that lance back _now_, you yellow ball of custard."

"_Custard_?" Yirby yelled. He liked eating custard, but being called one wasn't very nice, and now his temper had been becoming shorter these days. Maybe it was because of everything he had put up with. "Oh, _that's it_!" He yelled a Blow-back Spell, causing the pink knight to be blown to the other side of the Super-Starship. "You, sir, we happened to _save your life_, and now you—where's Birby?"

"_Here_," the voice called irritatedly. "I'm piloting the ship, dumbasses."

"Oh, that's _nice_," Fumu spat. "C'mon, guys, got any rope here?"

"I think w-we have one..." Girby went off searching. While he did that, the rest of them kept watch.

Meta knight stepped in. "Guys, Galacta Knight only didn't know what to do, so surely—"

"That _does not mean_ he can skip the calm questioning and go right to explosive attacking!" Rirby exploded. "Looky here, girly—"

"I thought that was _my_ nickname," Fumu stated, puzzled.

"—Fumu, do you _want_ me to? Anyway, you are to keep quiet and just _shut up_. Meta Knight, you _will_ explain everything. Or else."

* * *

Once the whole situation was explained, Galacta Knight nodded. "Oh, I see. Pardon me. It is just that... I have been in another place for so many years, I cannot trust a lot of people."

"It says you're a _guy_," Birby said, looking puzzled.

"Um...pardon?" Galacta Knight asked, tilting her head.

"This book, it says _he_," Birby explained, closing the book and thrusting in it Galacta Knight's arms. Its title was _Legendary Warriors_. "I just happened to read past the G section. It says you're a guy."

"Well, back then," Galacta Knight began, "females couldn't be knights, you see. It's just that way. So I pretended to be a male so that I could be a knight."

"Poyo kni," Kirby said, frowning as he struggled with his words, "why poyo kni?"

Galacta Knight patted Kirby's head. "_That_ is a story for next time."

Kirby sighed, before taking the book and started flipping through it, scanning the pages.

"Hey," Meta Knight began.

"Hey," Yirby replied confusedly. "Uh... I mean, what is it?"

"We're...in space, right?"

"Well, yes, that's right. Why?"

"Where are we heading towards?"

"No where in particular." This shocked Meta Knight. "We're only gonna wander in space for a little, before we head back to Popstar. By then, I bet that imbecilic king would have gone to the other side of Popstar to look for you," Yirby explained.

Meta Knight frowned. "By the way, how far is the galaxy Recta from Popstar?"

"Um. Maybe a three month trip? It's not that far, that's all I know."

"Then shouldn't we be able to detect Hikari's ship?"

"_Should_ we?" Yirby sounded surprised. He clicked the "Detect Other Ships" button. A map appeared on the screen and it showed another ship heading towards Popstar. Yirby clicked it, and it read H089. "H089? What's that?"

"It's Hikari's ship. She's heading back to Popstar," Meta Knight said seriously. "This is _seriously_ bad..."

"_I thought you wanted to let yourself be killed, because of your sins, or so you think,_" Miinyx stated.

_Miinyx. Can you just NOT disturb me?_

"_I'm giving you ADVICE. Now, if you don't want it, I'll be on my way._"

_On your way to where?_

"_Secret._"

"We're gonna **_CRASH_**!" Birby screamed suddenly.

"What?" Fumu yelled. "Where?"

"On this...weird planet. I don't know, but I can't stop the Super-Starship! It's like we're being _drawn_ there!"

"Something special must be there," Meta Knight advised.

Yirby clicked a "Show Galaxy Map" button and clicked the planet they were heading to. It just read "?". "That's its name! A bunch of question marks!" Yirby exclaimed. "...Wait, that doesn't make any sense. Maybe we've never identified that planet."

Meta Knight shook his head. "No," he said, "that _is_ the planet's name."

_CRASH._

* * *

"Ouch...my butt..."

"META KNIGHT! YOU _PRICK_! YOUR STUPID GALAXIA PRICK OF A SWORD POKED MY BUTT! _MY BUTT_! YOU SHOULD NEVAH, EVAH POKE MAH BUTT! YOU _PRICK_!"

Galacta Knight watched in amusement as Rirby chased Meta Knight down to get revenge.

"Guys, stop that," Fumu ordered. It did little to help Meta Knight, but at least Rirby's attention was at Fumu. "We don't even know where we are, and neither Girby nor Birby can start up the Super-Starship. Neither can Yirby."

"...Sorry..." Girby said sheepishly. "We can only explore this planet for now."

As they walked, they felt a little scared, but when Galacta Knight noticed a few metal parts, she immediately jumped to a conclusion. "This is part of Nightmare's base," she said. "I don't expect there to be many more demon beasts, but we may come across a few robots..."

"Poyo," Kirby stated as he pointed to a dark pink thing that was half hidden by the bushes.

"You see what I mean?" Galacta Knight muttered as she pulled out the dark pink thing. "It's a robot."

Fumu gasped. "That's so cruel! For Nightmare, to leave something behind... On this horrid planet... I bet this is his junkyard."

Galacta Knight nodded. "That's half of its purpose. The other half of its purpose is to send all those really strong warriors to wipe out the junk. If we're lucky, we might come across one."

"Why would we wanna?" Rirby snapped.

"So we can collect information from it, if Nightmare has an accomplice and is also creating demon beasts, etc." As soon as Galacta Knight said that, the dark pink thing's—it was a puffball, actually, with blue hair—eyes opened.

"Oh! It's awake. Hello. I'm Fumu," Fumu said sweetly. Rirby stuck out his tongue at her.

"...Girl 434..." the dark pink puffball said in a deep breath, before its head dropped down—more like _her_, actually—and started breathing heavily.

"It's a robot," Galacta Knight said. "Demon beasts with number and its gender—such as this, Girl 434—are failed demon beasts, so they get turned into robots. And after they do, if they're still really bad, they get sent to this planet."

"That's horrible," Fumu murmured. "Don't worry, Girl 434. Is that really her name? It's quite annoying."

"We've got no choice," Galacta Knight replied, grimacing. "Her name _is_ Girl 434."

Fumu raised a brow. "Why don't _we_ give her a name? What about Ginger?"

Galacta Knight rolled her eyes. "Fumu, we are calling her Girl 434. If we call her anything else... That is not the best solution." She prodded Girl 434 cautiously, expecting some sort of reaction. The only one was a low whine.

"I've been running..."

"Running? What a _cowardly_ thing a creature could do!" Birby exclaimed.

"From...a Cleaner."

Galacta Knight caught Meta Knight's confused look. "A Cleaner is the demon beast that was sent to wipe out the junk, and—_why_ am I the only one who knows this sort of stuff?"

"Because _you_ hacked into Nightmare's information," Meta Knight stated, "and we didn't."

"Whatever."

"O...Ow..." Girl 434 muttered, spluttering out some blood.

"Yirby, please do a Healing Spell on her!" Fumu begged.

Yirby glanced at Girl 434 for a minute, as if pondering on whether he should or not. "I'm not sure if I can heal this type of...injury. I have to do a Scan first." The yellow puffball hesitantly stepped forward and put his hands together above Girl 434, then Girl 434 was surrounded in a translucent green box. After a while, Yirby frowned. "I...uhm, sorry, I don't...know how to perform this kind of spell needed."

Fumu sighed. "Never mind, can't you at least _help_ her?"

Once again, the yellow puffball hesitated. "There isn't much to do about her injury," he replied.

"Can't you do a Medical Cleaning Spell?" Fumu persuaded.

"But unlike Meta Knight's situation, she was attacked with something and _nothing_ is in her," Yirby replied. "I would have stopped the bleeding, but the bleeding has _already_ stopped. There is nothing more I can do."

_Is that so?_ Fumu wondered. _The other four Kirbys are actually kind of hesitant, and their mood has changed. I wonder what they've realized._

"Well, okay... Girl 434, where is the Cleaner?" Fumu asked. "We just want to help, we don't want to injure you anymore."

"She is...also unconscious, the Cleaner," Girl 434 said feebly. "I am not sure where she is, but somewhere nearby."

"We'll find that Cleaner," Fumu said confidently, "and wipe her out for all the bad things she's done."

"It's not the Cleaner's fault," Girby pointed out, somehow having full confidence in his words. "She was just told by Nightmare to do it. She couldn't have disobeyed, you know.

"True... Well, we'll just find the Cleaner first, then we'll get on with our work, okay?"

* * *

"Ow! Kirby, can you quit that? Yirby! Can't you use a spell to make a clear path?"

"If it's _so_ easy, then why don't _you_ do it, Fumu!"

"My butt has _thorns_. That _prick_ Meta Knight is _not_ an ally. He needs to _die_."

"Rirby, please don't say that..."

Fumu, Yirby, Girby, Rirby, Kirby, and Meta Knight, were out looking for the Cleaner, while Birby and Galacta Knight stayed behind to watch over Girl 434. There were brambles here and there, thorns as well, prickly bushes that Rirby was highly irritated by, and tall trees with fat stumps that you would crash into every time.

"So much work for a _stupid robot_ who I don't even _like_!" Rirby yelled in complaint. Fumu tried to ignore him, but it got slightly hectic when _Girby_, _Girby_ of all people, got agitated as well. This meant Yirby was annoyed long ago.

After all, Girby never got agitated.

The Kirbys—apart from Kirby himself—did not seem to like Girl 434, but Fumu did, and Fumu wanted to save Girl 434. "Guys, look at Girl 434. She's been thrown into the junkyard, and she's so pitiful."

Girby spat out some dirt in his mouth as they jumped over a fallen tree trunk. "Yes—but it is _highly_ annoying, since _we_ do not wish to be here. And, why don't you three just go your—_achoo_!"

"Night's coming," Yirby sulked. "And it's—_acho__o!_—getting colder."

"I want to go back," Rirby mumbled.

"_No_, we are _not_ going back until we find the Cleaner!"

"...Did you hear something?" Girby asked.

"No, did you?"

"I heard someone shouting something like, _na_ or something."

"That could be the Cleaner!" Fumu decided as she pushed past the bushes. She yelped as a icicle that had purple bubbles on it shot out above her head. "Hey—!"

As the rest pushed past, it revealed an orange puffball with pitch black hair, a pair of somewhat translucent wings, and it was basically _glaring_ at them. Plus, it was bleeding, too. "You," she said, "what _business_ do you _have_ with me?"

"Are you the Cleaner?" Girby asked.

"Of this planet? Yes. Yes. Of course. I've been the cleaner for six years. And just a few years back, you defeated Nightmare, and I have no more home. Of course anyone can tell that malevolent _pink puffball_ is Kirby."

"...You can't blame us for it," Fumu said softly. "_He_ was destroying _our_ home. In any case, we are nursing a robot, Girl 434, back to health, and you have to come with us."

"What's your name?" Rirby asked, a smarter question compared to Fumu.

"..._Reese_," the female demon beast said suspiciously. "Wait, robot? You _do_ know my purpose is to..."

"...wipe out all the 'junk'? Sorry, but you _can't_ do that. Girl 434 is already our friend," Fumu said huffily.

"Not _mine_!" Rirby burst out, along with Girby and Yirby. Rirby stabbed a finger at Fumu threateningly. "Do _not_ put words in my mouth, Fumu."

Reese blinked at them, before suddenly her muscles tensed and she was gone. "Teleportation," Meta Knight muttered.

"She couldn't have gone far, surely..."

As soon as they tracked Reese down again, they saw her on a tree. "Why don't you just come with us? We'll nurse you back to health."

"Because I'm looking for _Amna_, and you _will_ _not_ disturb me," Reese said stubbornly.

"Amna? Who's Amna?" Fumu questioned.

Reese sighed.

"My younger sister."

* * *

_There you go. One demon beast, one robot._

_Actually, Reese and Amna is the name of my friends. Picked Reese as a demon 'cause she's so sadistic... And as for Amna? Well, you'll find out._

_Anyway, please review! *starts typing up next chapter*  
_


	9. The Demon Beast

_So... Here is another chapter! More of the demon beasts._

_**coleypepwars3679**: Yeah in my class everyone is like "REESE GIMME CANDY" then she'd just quietly slip away...  
OMG YOUR NAME IS AMNA?  
YUP YOU SHOULD WRITE MORE. NOW. NOW. NOOOOOOOOW._

**_Cpl Cupcake:_**_ Cut some OC? Pardon me asking, but what do you mean?  
It's been so long that I've forgotten what I've done to Dedede. I BETTER REREAD.  
_

_Please review! Lurkers, my story stats say you are reading. So review._

* * *

9: The Demon Beast

_"Well... I guess it would be fine to keep them, because they don't seem like bad guys."_

* * *

"You have a younger sister, named Amna?" Fumu questioned.

"Yeah, don't _you_ have a sibling?" Reese asked back dubiously.

"Must you always answer a question with a question?"

"You're a fine one to talk, aren't you?"

"Well, you—"

"Hang on!" Yirby said, exasperated. "Let's not bother with questions anymore. Right now, we have to know, if, Reese, _are you the Cleaner or not_?"

Reese folded her arms and held her head high. "Of course I am, twit. I just said I was, didn't I?" She snorted and proceeded to spread her translucent wings—and in Meta Knight's mind, something snapped. Maybe Miinyx knew something he didn't. "Now, I'm going to clean the rest of the planet—"

Fumu clenched her fists. "You are not going to _clean_ anyone! You are _not_ going to _clean_ Girl 434!"

The orange demon beast looked down at Fumu, regarding her with some sort of interest. "Oh, Girl 434... That brat that keeps running away... You have her? With you?" She blinked down at them.

"Yes, we do, and you'll never destroy her."

"I beg to differ," Reese huffed. Her translucent wings twitched and she shot into the sky.

Meta Knight and the others were about to dart back to where Girl 434 and the others were, but suddenly, he collapsed on the ground, eyes closed.

* * *

"Took me forever to do that!" Miinyx huffed. "Anyway, boy, what have you been doing? You've rescued a robot—a failed demon beasts. Those aren't very well trusted, you know." She flicked her tail at Meta Knight, who stepped away.

"But she is injured. Should we not help her? Besides, the ones whom we should not trust are the real demon beasts."

"No," Miinyx hissed. "It's the other way round, you fool. You can't trust the robots, but you can trust the demon beasts. The demon beasts are sane and can think perfectly well, with no problems or anything. But robots usually cannot be trusted. They know they are failed demon beasts, and if they are on this wretched planet, they must be hurt greatly because they know they are not good enough. They would do anything to prove themselves."

Meta Knight shook his head. "You know what you're saying, Miinyx? You're saying that only for the majority. But Girl 434 isn't possibly that way. I believe she has a good heart, and she will aid us in battle."

Miinyx let out a frustrated growl, something that told Meta Knight she was not pleased. "No, you fool. That's what they do. They trick you, spin you a beautiful web of lies, then when they're fully trusted, back-stab you painfully."

"You probably do that. Girl 434 won't do that."

"Of course, so you think. And I thought you didn't know her much yet... Was I too late?"

"You were too late for everything, Miinyx. Your facts will not change my decisions. Now, let me back to my own life, and if I'm back-stabbed, then you can go rejoice, but I have _full confidence_ Girl 434 is an honest soul."

"Robots have souls, huh..." Miinyx thought dubiously, frowning.

"You know what I mean."

"No, no I _don't_," Miinyx said ferociously. "I don't know _why_ you trust that robot girl so much..." Her frown twisted into a sinister smile. "But, of course, that might be your downfall. Trusting too much."

Meta Knight snapped awake.

* * *

After finding Reese, convincing her they would not kill her, they brought her back to their..."camp". It turned out that the Kirbys had packed tents—and they didn't even know that themselves—so they were staying there for the night.

Girl 434 was very cautious of the demon beast, though. She plopped down next to Meta Knight and shivered under Reese's glare. "Stop glaring at me," Girl 434 muttered, somewhat annoyed.

"You can't use that tone on me," Reese snapped, flicking a strand or two. "On the demon beast hierarchy, _I rank higher than you_."

"Shut up, demon beast," Meta Knight snarled. He was not at all fond of demon beasts. Reese did not seem to be a threat, but it was highly likely she would attack them. Also... "What abilities do you have?"

"Since there's no reason to tell you..." Reese said, shaking her head, pitch black hair flying.

"Then fine. We will do a trade. We will tell you ours, and you will tell us yours," Meta Knight said.

Reese looked suspiciously at them, before nodding. "Fine."

"Poyo!" Kirby said excitedly.

"Shh," Birby said, patting Kirby on the head.

"Poyo."

"You see us, puffballs? We are the species Kirby. This pink one is called Kirby, but eh... I 'unno." Rirby shrugged. "Anyway, we Kirbys have the ability to inhale. If we, uhm, _swallow_ it, we will copy its ability. We call it Copy Abilities."

"This Fumu here has no ability whatsoever," Yirby said gleefully, "and she doesn't even have any brain."

Fumu huffed.

Meta Knight cast Yirby a _don't do that_ glance, and Yirby responded by glaring. "Galacta Knight and I are knights. I use Galaxia. A legendary sword, you must have heard from Nightmare."

Reese tossed her head. "Well, fine. I can use ice and poison. That's all."

"So those purple bubbles from the icicle you used earlier was poison?" Fumu asked.

"Of course, dimwit."

"Okay then." Fumu turned around to look at Girl 434. The robot girl looked faint as if she was about to...well, faint. "Girl 434, are you okay? I know you've had a very hard time running away. I don't mind staying on this planet, actually. I can think of worse places to get stuck on."

"Technically, we _are_ stuck here..." Girby began.

Kirby's head shot up. "Poyo—!" he screeched, dropping a stone in front of him. It was his yellow stone. "Poyo _hot_, poyo _burning hot_."

Fumu poked it and yelped. It _was_ hot. It was _really_ hot.

Kirby watched in horror as the stone began to crack slowly. Something seemed to shoot out of the stone and Kirby cried out suddenly, swinging his arm to the right dangerously and flinging the _thing_ off of him.

Reese burst out laughing.

Fumu stared in shock.

It was a baby dragon.

* * *

"What are you going to name him, Kirby?" Fumu asked.

"Quatapye," Kirby said cheerfully.

"What?!" Fumu was about to say: "_That's_ the _stupidest_ name _ever_!" but stopped herself. This was Kirby. "Well, Quatapye is a baby dragon, and you really must discipline him. He is quite small, though." She looked dubiously at the lizard-sized baby dragon.

"Please," Reese snorted. "Dragons grow rapidly. By tomorrow it'll be _at least_ twice its size, don't you worry."

"Oh yeah?" Fumu retorted.

Thunder crackled overhead. Fumu shivered. It was certainly getting quite cold on this planet. Reese noticed it and shrugged. She whistled once and from somewhere, somewhere that would _never_ be mentioned, a pegasus came hastily diving through the trees, plunging into them. It landed in front of Reese and snorted. Reese patted her—ironically—white pegasus, delighted to see the tack was still on.

"Great. I have some HeatCloaks in the saddlebags," Reese announced, opening the saddlebags and tossing out some scarlet cloaks. Kirby joyfully wrapped it around himself and hastily grabbed Quatapye, hiding him within the HeatCloak he was wearing. "This should keep everyone warm—but not _dry_."

"Oh, okay," Fumu said, slightly disappointed. She didn't want to be drenched. "Who would that be?" She pointed to the pure white pegasus, who tossed its head.

"Oh, her? Her name is Marianne. She's my pegasus. I used her in battle last time—I still do! But there's no one to really fight. She can travel in space, so when I whistle, she always comes." Reese shrugged yet again. "Looks like a bad storm."

"Shouldn't go under any trees," Fumu snorted snobbishly, looking pointedly at the tree Reese was standing under.

Rolling her eyes, Reese shook her head. "It's different here. The trees attract lightning but the trees simply absorb the lightning. We will not get affected. If you don't want to believe me, then don't." She smiled as Fumu scowled and walked over under the tree.

* * *

There were plenty of screams around the area as lightning struck the ground and other places. Marianne the white pegasus was still with them, not daring to fly away in this type of weather. Meta Knight breathed; this was _awful_. If someone got struck by it...

Galacta Knight and Girl 434 were still in the tent.

Struck by horror, Meta Knight dashed forward to save them. Birby caught his HeatCloak—which he was wearing over his cape—and yanked him back. "Don't," he hissed.

"I have to!" Meta Knight retorted.

"Birby has a point," Reese said flatly. "The lightning here almost has a _life_. When it sees a new target, it gladly tries to attack it. Of course you can escape, but I don't think you can, since you obviously haven't been put in that sort of training. Going out is extremely unadvised. You should not."

Lightning struck the tent.

Screams filled the air.

"I am _going now_!" Meta Knight yelled. He pulled the hood of his HeatCloak above his head and ran towards the fallen tent. This time, no one tried to pull him back, though Reese was sparing him a very disapproved glance.

Meta Knight's shoes splattered against the mud, making a very disgusting sound as they hit the ground. He ignored them as he reached the tent. Immediately, he pulled up the tent and went inside, searching for the both of them. He could smell burning flesh—he was terribly afraid for Galacta Knight.

When he saw Galacta Knight was unharmed, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank Nova you're alive. Now, make your way outside to the tree okay? Great."

Even when Galacta Knight left, the smell of burning flesh was still there.

Meta Knight hurried back outside to Reese. She gave him a confused stare. "Robots," he breathed. "Do they have flesh or mechanical parts?"

"Well, it was Nightmare's creation, so usually fake flesh. But still, it looks like flesh, feels like flesh, almost is flesh," Reese replied thoughtfully. "Why?"

Meta Knight shot back.

He searched the tent carefully. Girl 434 could be _anywhere_.

Finally, he found here, and she was coughing, bleeding. He wondered how smart Nightmare had been. He didn't bother giving it a second thought and grabbed the robot's hand before speeding out of the tent back to the others. Once he made it, he dropped her, then turned to Reese.

"Is she okay?"

"Most definitely not," Reese spat. "She had been struck by lightning. After this, we _must_ head down to the beach. That is, if you want to heal this robot. After that, you must listen to what I say." She bit her bottom lip. "She is like a normal creature, so my healing tactic _should_ work."

"No thanks," Fumu cut in. "I know how to heal, too. We still have to get her down to the beach, as fast as possible, and as quickly as possible."

"You are not taking Marianne, if we are following your plan," Reese said dryly.

"I'm _not_ using Marianne. We shall just carry Girl 434 to the beach. Then everyone listen to what _I_ say, got it?" Fumu said irritably. Reese didn't like the fact they didn't trust her. However, she was going to let it stay that way.

* * *

The storm stopped shortly after their conversation. It was Girl 434's leg that had been struck, so they were careful not to touch it. They carried her slowly to the beach, with Reese and Marianne following them cautiously.

When they reached it, Fumu looked at all of them. "I need you to get her leg into this rock pool."

Rirby frowned. "That will hurt. _A lot_. Just so you know."

"It's not going to hurt," Fumu said firmly, reassuring Girl 434. "It's not going to hurt, _at all_, so please keep quiet and don't scream. Lift up her leg and get it into the rock pool—_quickly_."

They lifted her leg and dropped it into the rock pool. Girl 434 shrieked. It hurt a lot more than expected. "Get it _off_—ugh!"

"No," Fumu said flatly. "Now, that's all. We'll just wait for a while, before we can carry on. See, the wound has to be kind of cleaned. Does anyone have antiseptic?"

Reese raised her hand uncertainly. Fumu scowled, but nodded anyway. Reese opened the saddlebag and passed the antiseptic to Fumu.

Kirby squealed suddenly.

"Poyo, poyo!" he exclaimed, dancing on the spot. He pointed to the rock pool, then to Girl 434's leg, shaking his head in disapproval. "Verrow ston."

"Um. What?" Fumu asked.

"Yellow stone, idiot!" Rirby scoffed, obviously disliking Fumu _immensely_. Kirby nodded, taking out Quatapye. "He means if the yellow stone had healing powers, Quatapye also must have healing powers!"

"No, don't. We should just let the leg heal by itself," Fumu said, shaking her head, pushing Quatapye back into Kirby's hand. Clearly, Kirby was annoyed, but said nothing.

"Are you _sure_?" Rirby pressed.

"Yes, very sure. Now shut up." Fumu scowled at Rirby, who was giving her a dubious glare.

Reese stared at the setting before her, before looking at Marianne in the eye. They both shared the same look which said _the robot will not heal._

* * *

_Let me just go splutter out some blood because this chapter was horribly written._

_Anyway, sorry for the super-long wait. I was really busy..._

_Please review and all that stuff. Bye baiz._


	10. The Name

**TechnoDee:**

HAI THERE!

What's with the new style of author's note? Do you have a problem? No? Okay. Brilliant.

Sorry for the long wait guys! D: I've been... very... busy. Like _really_ busy. So busy that getting on the computer for five minutes is hard. So... that's not the point, so let's just move on to the chapter.

And... actually. You know how I use the Japanese names? Like, not Tiff, but Fumu? Yeah, well, instead of Chilidog, I'm using Wolfwrath. Because Chilidog will soon not be so chili. You'll understand soon.

**coleypepwars3679**: Wait. What the heck? YOU'RE _LYING_! *completely fake lying detector flashes LIE*

* * *

10: The Name

_"Even if I told you something, that could be a lie."_

* * *

Meta Knight, much to his irritation, found himself in the dream world again. Miinyx was still disturbing him, wasn't she?

"My name is Miinyx," the demon stated flatly.

"You _told_ me that was your name," Meta Knight retorted angrily, "so I have to just call you that. Were you just reading my thoughts, you minx?" Miinyx had a very ugly habit of intruding into his thoughts.

"I only _told_ you Miinyx," Miinyx reasoned stiffly. "Doesn't mean my name is Miinyx. Could be a lie. You know you're gullible? And you're not supposed to find out my name until you can _hear_ it. You can't right now. You're in too much of a horrid state. And I have a surname, thank you."

"Miinyx Minx," Meta Knight guessed.

"Obviously _not_! Preposterous. Idiot," Miinyx scoffed. "There's no point in telling you now, anyways—you won't be able to hear it."

Meta Knight looked at her suspiciously as she examined her silver wings. "Or are you just being stubborn and not telling me?"

Miinyx huffed at him. "Fine! It's ******** ******."

"...What?"

"I _told_ you you can't hear it! Stupid!" Miinyx flicked a claw in his direction. "Anyways, as I already said, you can't hear my name as of now, but you will be able to when you figure _yourself_ out! Your brain is in too much of a mess to hear my name! That's why! So you solve your problems first!"

"I have _no_ problems!"

The demon gave him a halfhearted glare. "Yeah, yeah. You have problems with those demon beasts. And that stupid robot I told you to stay away from. By the way, you really dislike that demon beast, don't you?"

Meta Knight rolled his eyes. "Well, I wonder if the sky is blue."

"The sky isn't blue from where I came from," Miinyx stated. "It was a pale yellow. Very dull."

"...Oh. Then I wonder if grass is green."

"Grass is blue," Miinyx snapped, "from where I came from. Grass can also be yellow even here, I heard."

"You _suck_," Meta Knight remarked, having no other way of arguing. "Anyway, let me out of the freaking dream. Disturb me when I'm _conscious_, that might help."

"It won't help you," Miinyx told him. "But whatever."

* * *

"Stupid demon..." Meta Knight muttered under his breath. Reese gave him a sideways glare, balancing on one foot, the other was being scrapped off of sand. "Not you, you're a demon _beast_."

"No diff," Reese scowled, throwing a pebble that was conveniently sitting there. "There's no way that you've seen an actually demon, anyway. Not unless you're weird. Or crazy. Either one."

_"She's right,"_ Miinyx chimed in unhelpfully.

"Shut up," Meta Knight replied.

"You've been getting more short tempered ever since we left to escape Hikari," Yirby noted, prodding Girl 434's leg. "What's happening that we don't know about? Surely _something_ must be happening. You can't just be suddenly short tempered. That doesn't make any sense."

Meta Knight considered Miinyx, but when she interfered his thoughts with a fierce _"It's not me!"_, he decided demons couldn't have an impact on your personality. Not unless they purposely did something. Meta Knight shrugged.

Reese's head snapped to the left. "There is an approaching demon beast," she whispered.

"What?! I thought Nightmare is _dead_!" Fumu exclaimed.

Reese gave Fumu a very mean glare. "Just because he's dead doesn't mean that there aren't still demon beasts. In fact, there are plenty roaming around, most on this planet. There _are_ one or two on Popstar, I hope you realize."

Fumu hadn't realized that.

But whatever.

A howl erupted from the rocks, and a boulder was pushed to the side as the bruised and injured Wolfwrath snarled, one paw ahead of the other. Inwardly, Meta Knight flinched. The same of its species had nearly killed him on one occasion. He put on hand on Galaxia.

"_Don't_ kill it," Reese said in a hushed whisper. "I might be able to communicate."

"What?" Meta Knight was stunned.

Reese stepped forward. The Wolfwrath turned to her, acknowledging his comrade. "Stop. These are our allies."

"What?" The Wolfwrath turned to them. "They are Star Warriors!"

"No." The lie slipped out without any difficulty. "They _were_ Star Warriors... not anymore. Although, technically, they're not on Nightmare's side. They're in the middle, now."

"Oh." The Wolfwrath turned to them. "My apologies."

"They say it's all right," Reese spat out quickly, before anyone could say anything else. "But... I heard that there's one of Nightmare's machines around. I wanted to test it out, but it requires to demon beasts, one to handle the controls, and the other to be tested on."

"Don't worry," the Wolfwrath replied, "it's fine."

"He's a nice person," Girby spoke up nervously.

The Wolfwrath blinked once, twice. "...I'm a she..."

"Oops! I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine," the Wolfwrath replied. "Anyway, Reese, where's this machine?"

"Hang on a sec," Reese said, "I've gotta discuss something." She darted over to them again.

Fumu flared. "What are you _thinking_ about this machine bullcrap?!"

Reese glared again. "Sissies like _you_ shouldn't be using such language... In any case, I know what the machine does! Nightmare originally wanted it to turn Star Warriors into demon beasts, but he ended up making the opposite! It turns demon beasts into Star Warriors! And can give another power as well."

As Reese led the Wolfwrath away, Fumu skittered over to check Girl 434's leg. She scrunched up her nose. "What's that black thing?"

"Seaweed," Yirby replied. "You put it, didn't you?"

"Yeah... but not that much!"

"You're a blind bat," Rirby scoffed. "What else could that be? Stinking black sludge, maybe?"

"Ew! No way! Fine then, you're right, it's seaweed. And don't blame my vision! The effects of that stupid, _stupid_ DDD slime is still there, okay!"

"DDD slime?" Meta Knight echoed.

_"It's a type of slime that makes you feel woozy, and your senses get duller,"_ Miinyx supplied—this time helpfully. _"Your memory also gets worse. I'm not sure how long it lasts, since it was never said."_

_'Oh. How do you know?'_

_"Trust me, I do!"_ Miinyx cackled.

_'...But how?'_

_"Books, boy—BOOKS. I read a lot of them back in my home dimension. Until..."_ Miinyx trailed off. _"They're coming back."_

_'Who are?'_

_"Them,"_ Miinyx replied shortly and escaped to another part of Meta Knight's head.

The Wolfwrath was now, noticeably, golden. The emerald on his forehead was replaced with an orange pearl. She shook her fur. "That felt weird," she remarked.

Reese nodded. "And now—naming time."

"Ginger!" Fumu piped up (she wanted to name Girl 434 that, if you remember).

"No!" The Wolfwrath was horrified.

"Shh!" Reese hushed. "Okay, whoever says the name first will name the Wolfwrath! Ginger is accepted too."

The golden Wolfwrath gave Reese a nasty glare.

"Okay... 3... 2... 1... _now_!"

Before Fumu could open her mouth, Kirby hurtled himself into the air, launching himself into the direction of the golden Wolfwrath, squealing, "Staroyo!"

Reese sighed, "That's that then. Staroyo."

Staroyo turned to Reese, squinting. "Are you sure?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Reese asked, puzzled.

_"Staroyo—star and poyo?"_ Miinyx guessed, tapping her claw. _"I'll have to get used to that."_

_'You're not even doing anything with Staroyo, anyway,'_ Meta Knight replied heatedly.

_"We're both something related to demons—I say I do. In fact, I could disturb both of the precious demon beasts right now, if you wanted me to,"_ Miinyx said cheerfully. _"But then again... you don't want anyone to know that you have a demon in your head, do you?"_

_'Be quiet,'_ Meta Knight said stiffly.

So that it was. Staroyo.

* * *

**A/N:** Well, that's that, we have the introduction of Staroyo. :3 It's a stupid name, but then again, it's Kirby! Do you expect anything _smart_ from Kirby? Staroyo _is_ a very important character, by the way. And as of now, her ability... is unknown, and is for another time!

So... yeah, again, sorry for the long wait. Life's been busy. And horrible. Basically? It sums up to "no time on computer". So that's that! Please review!


	11. The Slush

**TechnoDee:**

So um HERE IS ANOTHER UPDATE! Because life is like that.

Meta Knight's communication is now _'like this'_. _Like this_ means his thoughts.

**coleypepwars3679:** OF COURSE YOU LIE! NO CREATURE IS ABOVE LYING.

**NoneKnowme**: It's _Kirby_. Don't expect any great feats.

* * *

11: The Slush

_"If you were to tell me THAT is seaweed, I am going to stare at you."_

* * *

_"She's not healing."_

_'Shut up.'_

_"No parts of her leg are healing. She's dying."_

_'She won't die if you're not so pessimistic!'_

_"Call it pessimism, I call it realism."_

Meta Knight stared miserably at the rock pool Girl 434's leg was in. Undoubtedly, it was _not_ healing, and Fumu was in denial, saying her healing tactic (ha!) was _perfect_, so that had to be seaweed. This earned her a very odd glare from Rirby, and a snarky comment or two, but nothing else otherwise.

"That is _not_ seaweed," Reese stated.

"Then what is it?!" Fumu snarled, fists curling. "I don't _think_ there's anything other than seaweed—and sand—on this shore!"

"That is the stinking black slush of doom," Reese continued, ignoring Fumu effectively. "Or what Nightmare called it, anyway. He didn't invent it, but rather something that was already there. If an injury is not treated properly, the stinking black slush of doom appears."

_"Oh, ugh!"_

_'I said shut up.'_

"But this is what I was _taught_!" Fumu exclaimed.

"Apparently what you were _taught_ is wrong."

"So what do we do?"

Reese clicked her tongue. Something sparked in her eyes. "I guess if you're so smart, and you know everything, then why don't you decide what we should do?"

Fumu narrowed her eyes dangerously at her. "Fine, I'll admit it. My method didn't work."

"And?"

"And I should have listened to you."

"And?"

"And I should have accepted that was slush, not seaweed."

"And?"

"And I don't know everything."

"And?"

Fumu gave an exasperated sigh. "And I'm an idiot! Happy now?"

Reese grinned. "Satisfied."

* * *

Meta Knight sat on the shore, at the area where the water crawled onto the shore. Reese was busy giving Fumu a one hour lecture, the other puffballs were playing with the sand (actually, Rirby was assaulting them by kicking sand into their faces—but no difference), Staroyo was sleeping, Girl 434 was resting, and Marianne was a horse and could not exactly entertain him. Much.

And then, Meta Knight didn't feel so alone anymore.

_(Hello.)_

Jolting upright, Meta Knight swerved his head around, but saw no one. He rested a hand on Galaxia.

_'Who are you?'_

_(Hello.)_

It didn't look like the voice was going to stop disturbing him.

_'Why are you talking to me?'_

The same response came.

_(Hello.)_

It didn't sound like Miinyx. It didn't sound like anyone he knew.

_I'll ask Miinyx about it later._

* * *

"Miinyx," Meta Knight called. Thankfully, she had decided to disturb him.

"I told you, my name is not Miinyx! It is ******** ******!"

"I still can't hear you, you know. I'll just have to call you Miinyx now. But I have a question to ask."

"Oh?" Miinyx looked at him, interested. "What is it?"

"Have you seen any... odd, or funny, thing in my head recently?"

Miinyx simply stared. She shook her head slowly. "No, it's same as always. Nothing new."

So what was that voice? Perhaps someone he didn't know? Perhaps it wasn't even in his head? If it wasn't in his head, how did it communicate with him? Why was it disturbing him in the first place, anyway?!

"What does it sound like?"

"Pardon?"

"The voice," Miinyx said dully. "What did it sound like?"

"I, um... don't know. It only said one word. It only said 'hello'."

Miinyx tapped her chin thoughtfully, drawing a circle on the floor with her other hand. "It only said hello. It said hello repeatedly?" Meta Knight nodded. "I see. Well then, what did you say to it?"

"I only asked it what it was and why was it talking to me. It just said 'hello', though. I'm not sure what I should do. I didn't want to contact you while I was conscious because I thought it might be able to find out, and I didn't want that."

"Hm," Miinyx narrowed her eyes, as if pondering. "That's... odd. I've never come across anything like that."

"Oh."

That was awful. If Miinyx didn't know what to do, then it was up to Meta Knight himself. He sat down, beginning to think. Miinyx watched him silently, folding her silver scaly wings. She waited.

"Can you do anything about it?"

"I'll see. I'll check your head. That is, if you want me to. You'll get a headache while I do, you know." Miinyx rubbed her claws together.

"I don't care. So long as you find out what it is."

"...Fine." Miinyx rolled her eyes and swung her tail in his direction. "Don't start whining to me about your headaches later on, though."

"Yeah. Sure. And by the way, what do you mean by 'problems'?"

Miinyx looked at him, tilting her head. "What do you mean?"

"You told me I couldn't hear your name because of my problems."

"I mean like, what's happening in your real life. That robot's leg, Hikari chasing after you, those kind of things."

"What has that got anything to do with your name?"

The demon sighed. "Well, you see, when you have unsolved problems, your head gets clogged up with them. You can't hear my name _because_ you need mind space to hear it. It works that way."

"Oh. I see."

"Yes you do," Miinyx said, crossing her arms. "Now you'll just have to solve them, huh? It's your choice, not mine."

"All right." Meta Knight got on his feet. "Well, I'll talk to you next time."

"Sounds good to me," Miinyx said dryly, flicking his forehead.

* * *

**A/N:** Well. It hasn't been too long. *whispers* Or at least I don't think.

By the way. That voice. I don't know what it's gonna do or what it is either. But you know what? I'm just going to pull my spur-of-the-moment thing. And if you haven't already noticed, Meta Knight finds the voice annoying. How would you like it if someone's just like "hello" all the time?

So review! Until next time!


	12. The Voice

**TechnoDee:  
**

Ugh, exams suck. So much. Especially when I have _three_ next week, in which case I should be studying, but meh.

**coleypepwars3679**: Why, hello there, sir. Or not-sir**.**

* * *

12: The Voice

_"Why is he... smacking his head against the wall?"_

* * *

The next time Meta Knight encountered the irritating voice, he was in a foul mood. Well, to be more specific, Miinyx had put him in a foul mood by saying that there was no sort of virus in his head and he shouldn't be worrying about anything, and that he was just being a _dolt_, and that was the trigger and he was in a foul mood. No one liked being called a dolt. Miinyx had excellent name-calling skills. It was annoying.

_(Hello.)_

_"It's there! It's there! Ooh, I hear it!"_

_'Shut up!'_

_(Hello.)_

Meta Knight balled his fists and crossed his arms. Not even bothering to look around, he said, "Hello, and just stop irritating me. It's... irritating."

Very much surprisingly, Meta Knight's answer was not the same two-syllable word. _(Oh.)_

_"Okay, sir, what the hell?! First you say five hellos, then you say 'oh'. I demand an explanation!"_

_'I should be saying that.'_

The voice didn't speak for a while. When it did, it didn't sound perturbed at all. _(I said hello. You were supposed to say hello. You had no manners.)_ Its tone was the same as one would use when saying, "Oh, it's raining."

Miinyx screeched. _"Well, not my fault doofus here has no manners! I still demand an explanation! Who—in—all—the—dimensions—are—you?!"_

_(Someone,)_ the voice replied gleefully. It certainly liked annoying people.

"Someone could be a lot of things," Meta Knight observed dully.

_"Idiot! Talk MENTALLY! If one of your friends come find you talking to yourself, they'll suspect you!"_

_'I'm on a tree.'_

_"So?"_

_'Well,'_ Meta Knight said carefully, _'if you're not going to tell me what you are, then what's your name?'_

_(My name?)_ The voice sounded genuinely surprised. There was silence for a while—except for the impatient tapping of Miinyx's claws—until it replied. _(Noone.)_

"_What_?!" Meta Knight could not help but exclaim out loud.

_(That's it. My name. Noone. No-one. Get it? If you don't know what that means, then just pronounce it as a drawled out "none". Simple?)_

_'No—yes—**NO**! How is your name "Noone"?! What kind of idiot parents do you have?'_

_"Evidently,"_ Miinyx observed, _"that is not the name its parents gave it. It is... an alias?"_

_(More like you just aren't allowed to know my name.)_

_'Why don't I know ANYONE'S name?!'_

_"I told you it's because your head is cluttered with rubbish, it's not my fault."_

There was silence for a while—this time Miinyx _was_ actually silent and not doing anything strange—and no one spoke a word. Meta Knight wasn't sure why, to be honest. Then he heard Miinyx sniffing, as in sniffing _out_ something. He saw her wring her claws uncertainly.

Luckily, Noone talked. _(Something's there.)_

Meta Knight blinked downwards. Something was shuffling beneath. _'How did you know?'_

_(Because.)_

Noone said nothing further.

As if on cue, something shot out of the bushes. It moved so fast it was a blurry image to the knight's eye. He swiftly unsheathed Galaxia, holding it in front of him to guard himself.

Unfortunately, the creature knocked the sword right out of Meta Knight's grip, just like how Miinyx did.

_'Crap!'_

He threw himself off the tree and squinted to make out the shining gold sword. The creature—which Meta Knight now noticed was orange—pounced after him, and grabbed Galaxia in its jaws. Meta Knight's eyes widened. He waited, and waited... and the creature was just madly vibrating (so it was blurry), holding Galaxia in his mouth, and not getting struck. It was _worthy_ of holding that sword.

_'Wait... it's not holding Galaxia.'_

It pounced.

_"RUN!"_

When Meta Knight didn't move, Miinyx grabbed control of his senses and tore him away from the area he was rooted on. Now Meta Knight was running. He inhaled sharply and kept running straight, aware of the running _thing_ behind him.

_"It's a feline. An orange cat-thing. It's not really a cat, but it looks a lot like a cat."_

_'Just because I know it's a cat isn't going to help me defeat it.'_

_"It's another Cleaner sent by Nightmare when he was still alive, no doubt. Perhaps there can be two Cleaners at a time."_

The cat shrieked.

_"Whatever! Hurry up, you don't have Galaxia! CALL ME, you fool!"_

_'I don't know your name, remember?! You're the fool!'_

_"Solve your problems NOW or you'll die! Once you do, I'll yell my name in your ear, so loud it'll bleed!"_

Meta Knight clenched his jaw. All right, he could do this. He could do this...

_"There's a cliff ahead. There are no other paths but to a dead end."_

Girl 434's leg: If they listened to Reese, it would heal.

Hikari: He would man up to it because, whether he liked it or not, he was a man. (Not that that had to do with anything, 'cause he's not sexist.)

Returning to Popstar: He'd help fix... that ship... what was it called again?

That wasn't many problems, now that he thought about it.

Unfortunately, the cat pounced. Meta Knight's feet worked even faster. It missed, that was good; but now the cliff came into view. He had to hurry.

_'Miinyx! I'm done!'_

_"Not yet."_

Meta Knight was a meter or so from the cliff.

This cat: He'd call Miinyx.

His head suddenly felt a lot, lot, lighter. He could hear Miinyx shriek something. And then, after that, _"Call my name, you idiot, call my name **now**!"_

"_Miirenao Nyxero_!"

As if frightened in didn't work, Meta Knight squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the impact to come. Nothing came. Just silence.

(What kind of name was "Miirenao Nyxero", he wondered.)

_(Well, that's interesting.)_

_'Noone?! Where did you come from?'_

_(What are you saying? I've always been here. You better watch that demon, you know.)_

Meta Knight's eyes shot open and saw Miinyx herself wrestling with the demon. Her claws had sunk into the cat's paws, and the cat hissed and dropped Galaxia. The demon's tail swung at it towards Meta Knight, and the knight caught it. Miinyx—_Miirenao_—returned to his mind.

_'Why do you have such a funny name?!'_

_"It's not funny. Nyxero it my surname, stupid."_

_'Huh.'_

_"That thing is called Buzzine. Just thought you might want to know."_

The Buzzine pounced and Meta Knight swung Galaxia horizontally on reflex. The Buzzine was literally cut in half, and it melted into ashes. Meta Knight quickly sheathed Galaxia in fear of losing it again.

_(Woo. Great job.)_

_'Noone?'_

_(Who else? There's only one Noone.)_

_'Well... where are you?'_

_(I'm omnipresent.)_

_"You aren't,"_ Miirenao stated flatly. _"I only felt you once we reached this planet. You've been on this planet for quite a while, haven't you? You're just following Meta Knight, and that's all, just that we can't see you. You aren't in his mind, either."_

_(Oh. Well. Smart demon.)_ Noone said it in such a way that it sounded like saying, "Good doggy." Miirenao growled. _(I can't tell you what I am, or I'll get slaughtered.)_

_"By who?"_

_(Someone.)_

"Irritating as ever," Meta Knight said, sliding down against the cliff. For once, he was glad that the stupid voice and stupid demon were there. He's feel terribly alone without them. "Noone?"

The stupid voice didn't reply.

"Noone?"

_"It's gone,"_ Miirenao said. _"It just disappeared suddenly."_

"Oh, well. I'm sure it'll pop up again. And it Noone an _it_ or a _he_ or a _she_?"

_"We don't know its gender, so call it an it."_

"Yeah, okay. Well, I'm sure it'll disturb me sometime again."

Before Miirenao could reply, a roar resonated in the distance. Meta Knight turned towards where it came from.

_"It came from the area you were at, the beach, where Girl 434 is healing her leg."_

"That sounded like Quatapye!" Meta Knight exclaimed, alarmed.

_"Who?"_

"Quatapye, Kirby's baby dragon—he's double the size of me, now, so I can't really disrespect him. He nearly ate Fumu."

_"All right, all right—but what happened?"_

Miinyx asked a very good question: _what happened_?

* * *

**A/N:** Whew! That's done. Notice I didn't use a _single_ line thingy in the whole chapter? Except for when the A/N is done or A/N begins. Like now.

So... Miirenao has a stupid name. _Don't rub it in_.

Well, there you go. The voice is Noone... who I still... have not decided who it'll be...

At least it's not saying hello now.

HELP GAIZ. GIVE ME SUGGESTIONS FOR NOONE. IT CAN BE ANYTHING. FROM A TALKING WATERMELON TO A FLYING UNICORN. ANYTHING!


	13. The Attack

**TechnoDee:**

Ah, blargh. Life's been sucking.

**coleypepwars3679**: What. Have you been playing Kirby Squeak Squad too much?

**NoneKnowme**: Oh. Well. You noticed. That's a good idea. Annnnnd... I can't waltz. *fail*

* * *

13: The Attack  


_"It was so sudden. One second I was staring out into the ocean, the next second there was something clawing at my back."_

* * *

Running through a forest with clumps of branches, countless creeks and a quadrillion insects was not exactly the best idea. Despite all this, Meta Knight was rushing through the forest as fast as he could, which was fast, thankfully, because Miirenao had decided to blast everything in his way.

_'Miire—'_

_"Call me Miinyx."_

_'Why?'_

_"If you call me by my real name you'll call me out. So call me Miinyx."_

_'Okay, MIINYX. Is Noone there?'  
_

There was no reply for a while, until he could hear Miinyx tapping her claws. _"Yes, it's there. Just trying to be funny and not coming out,"_ Miinyx observed, folding her arms. _"I could get it right here, if you want to."_

Somehow, Meta Knight knew it was a bad idea. _'No thank you.'_

_"The beach is in front. Be prepared."_

_'Why?'_

He felt the dark presence leave and a newer one came in. Meta Knight squinted. _(Finally she's gone, and when she is, it's at one of the worst places,)_ Noone complained.

_'Noone?'_

_(Obviously.)_ Noone sounded ticked off.

_'Why were you waiting for Miinyx to leave?'_

_(She knows a lot more than you, and once she finds out what my goals are, she'll chase me out forever,)_ Noone sulked. Meta Knight frowned. Noone had _goals_? And if Miinyx was suspicious of them, then wouldn't it be... _bad_? _(It's not bad,)_ Noone reassured him. _(It_ _will be very useful. Tr__ust me.)_

_'Give me some reasons why,'_ Meta Knight said sourly.

_(Hm... that's a good one.)_

_'Are you saying you don't have any reasons?'_

_(In a way, yes; but eventually you'll have to trust me either way, so it doesn't matter.)_ Noone was quiet for a while, before speaking again. _(You should be prepared for what's up ahead, you know.)_

"You've seen what's up ahead?" Meta Knight could not help but speak aloud.

Noone fell silent again, as if contemplating if it was a good idea to tell him. _(Well, I suppose you could say that,)_ Noone said carefully. _(I'm not stuck in your head like that demon. I can actually roam freely.)_

_'Miinyx has come out of my head once. Why can't she now?'_ Meta Knight figured if he asked Miinyx this she could never answer him. It was just so, so... _her_.

_(When you were shot in the head, Miinyx lost the exit out of your mind,)_ Noone replied simply. _(If you call her by her real name, another exit will be opened and she can get out.)_ Why was Meta Knight always the clueless one?

"Oh."

Meta Knight tripped into the beach zone. Just as he did, he asked, _'How did you know I was shot?'_

Noone did not reply.

Meta Knight didn't notice.

Quatapye let out another raging roar and threw out fire at some creatures Meta Knight couldn't see through the yellow flames. Scarlet liquid was sprayed on his golden scales, and he was evidently the only one fighting. Meta Knight felt anxious; where were the rest?

The last enemy fell, and surprisingly, the flames seemed to calm and eventually disappear. Quatapye, Kirby's dragon, stood in front of the dead bodies of the enemies, and cast a wary glance over them. Due to the fire, some of the sand had turned into glass, and was tinted golden because of Quatapye's golden flames. Meta Knight looked around, and realized that the demon beasts were _Buzzines_. Girl 434 sat against the wall, her leg even worse injured than before. She was frowning in disappointment, seemingly because of her worsened injury.

Quatapye carelessly dusted the sand back over the glass, making it seem as if nothing happened and trotted over to Meta Knight, apparently recognizing him. Meta Knight stared as the golden dragon gestured towards a small cave with his tail.

"They're in there?"

A firm nod.

"Thank you. You can go wash yourself in the ocean. I'll make sure they're fine."

Quatapye walked uncertainly back to the ocean, hobbling slightly from the battle. Meta Knight took off to the cave and brushed past Girl 434.

_(I told you to be prepared,)_ Noone said.

_'Shut up!'_ was all Meta Knight said.

_(You're a horrible, horrible person.)_

_'I said to—'_

Meta Knight never finished that sentence.

Something came flying through the air and tackling him. It was a pink blur, until Meta Knight realized Kirby was shaking his shoulders and wailing, "Poyo!" constantly. He seemed completely sorrowful. Something awful must have happened.

Birby sauntered up to them. "Kirby! You mustn't move, your injuries aren't completely healed yet." Meta Knight had a good look at Kirby and realized Birby was right; Kirby had injuries all over him. None of them were too serious, luckily. "Meta Knight! It's lucky to see you back. What would I do if those cats attacked again while we're still injured?"

Kirby wasn't the only one injured. Birby had plenty of scratches and a few wounds. Nothing too bad. Rirby was cleaning off some blood away, but Meta Knight couldn't see his injuries due to his red skin, but he could tell he had quite a few injuries. Girby had a few bruises and a few cuts only; Rirby _had_ told him once Girby was the best at inhaling, so he had probably inhaled from a distance. Yirby had already been bandaged.

"Where's Galacta?"

"Galacta? Oh, she's..." Birby faltered uncertainly, but continued anyway. "She fought as well, and she's got injuries, of course. Um... she's got the most injuries because she was fighting in front of all of us."

"What _happened_."

"Well... we were just trying to make this cave, when suddenly a group of cat demon beasts—"

"Buzzines, they're called Buzzines."

"—suddenly attacked us." Birby looked at him suspiciously, probably wondering how he knew its name. "Galacta Knight immediately charged into battle, and we lost her in the mob of Buzzines. We began fighting, but there were a lot, so we were losing, so we retreated to the cave. Quatapye suddenly started fighting, and that's when we started winning, but when we found Galacta Knight, she was very badly injured."

"What about Girl 434?"

Birby swallowed. "We didn't manage to save her. She was too far away. She's still alive, though. Isn't she?"

"She is," Meta Knight replied shortly before thundering further into the cave. Kirby yanked on him, preventing him from moving further. "Kirby, let _go_ of me. Galacta is hurt and I need to see to her immediately. She's an old friend—you can't possibly know!"

"_Poyo_!" Kirby screeched.

Birby cleared his throat. "Ahem... Kirby said that it's your fault."

_(It is, if you think about it.)_

_'What do you mean?'_

"Poyo, poyo, poyo poyo, go away poyo!" Kirby continued.

"Kirby says that it's your fault for going away when we needed you to help us fight," Birby translated.

"Poyo poyo, _poyo_ weren't there!"

"But you weren't there to help us."

"Poyo!"

"And he's not the same kindhearted puffball and he knows what's going on and he's not going to be kind," Birby translated, squinting as he tried to form Kirby's short words into proper sentences.

Kirby clenched his fists. "Poyo, poyo poyo right?"

Birby sighed. "So what right do you have to go see her?"

_"Leave, now."_

Meta Knight wasn't sure when Miinyx came back, but he was too shocked to say anything (as cliche as it sounds). Kirby had actually _blamed_ Meta Knight for not being there. And the most horrible, terrible, horrendous part was, the infant Star Warrior was right.

Kirby continued to burn his new glare into Meta Knight (new because he's never actually glared). Birby looked at Meta Knight sympathetically, before sighing.

"I just thought you'd might want to know Reese also got injuries. Wounds. Fumu didn't get any, except for a few scratches."

_"Leave."_

Meta Knight stared at Kirby. The pink puffball glared back.

"Um... I assume you've also had a fight," Birby said carefully, trying not to offend him. "Would you like to get your injuries treated? Your shoes are in pretty bad shape. I could get them fixed, if you like."

_"Leave, boy!"_

"But it's not..." Meta Knight didn't even know what he wanted to say. How could he have wandered off and not come until Quatapye let out that devastating roar?

_"LEAVE!"_

"Poyo."

Birby stared at Kirby in shock, mouth hanging open in astonishment. Meta Knight could at least say this without feeling guilty.

"What... d-did he say?"

"He said..."

_"Leave, I'm telling you, or I'M going to do it! And I'll make sure it's painful!"_

"He said 'get out of here'."

_"Then we shall,"_ Miinyx sneered. She grabbed control of Meta Knight and sent him into a run out of the cave, out of the beach, into the forest. Meta Knight kept quiet. He didn't think he had any right to say anything right then. If anything, Miinyx had saved him from breaking down (which would be very embarrassing, by the way) in front of them. Birby was kind, but Kirby was not. It was as if saying, "I've put up with this enough." It was true, Meta Knight decided pathetically. He hadn't been there quite a few times when the demon beasts struck.

_(...Meta Knight?)_

_'Noone, don't...'_

_"Don't talk to him,"_ Miinyx barked.

_(Who's going to console him?)_ Noone retorted. _(I think we need to sort out his head right now. It MIGHT be his fault, but he needs to know running away isn't the thing to do, and SECOND, you don't listen to babies. That's just illogical.)_

_"You're illogical yourself, so you can't say that."_

"But Kirby _is_ right. Instead of hanging out in the forest because I was bored, I should've stayed. With them. But I went to go and satisfy myself."

_"You learned my name."_

"So what?"

_"Look, night is coming, and I suggest you get some sleep. You'll be fine in the morning and everything will be back to normal."_

After summoning Miinyx and making the demon make a leaf bed for him, and she returning to his mind, Meta Knight lay down and decided on something that would be important to Miinyx and Noone.

_'I can't sleep. I have a feeling that Kirby won't forgive me ever.'_

_"Oh well, what can we do..."_ Miinyx pondered.

_(A bedtime story?)_ Noone offered unhelpfully.

_"He's not a baby."_

_(You don't have to be a baby to listen to bedtime stories. Bedtime stories are simply supposed to HELP YOU SLEEP.)_

_"Well, whatever. If you're going with that, you tell it. I don't tell bedtime stories."_

_'Do you have any?__'_ Meta Knight asked miserably. Even though the idea was childish, it would most likely calm him down.

There was silence for a while. Miinyx had made herself comfortable (probably for the story). Noone let out a sigh. _(I suppose I do have one.)_

_'Oh. Okay.'_

_(Just so you know, it's going to begin with 'once upon a time', because bedtime story always start with that.)_

_"You're lame,"_ Miinyx said thoughtfully.

* * *

**A/N:** All right, so this chapter was very much essential. It shows how Kirby has grown up (not speech wise) and can actually tell what's going on and what's right and what's wrong. And so now, we're sort of developing the "hate stage" between these two. It has to happen. Trust me.

While that happens, we learn more of Noone and Miinyx, so aren't you _glad_ that I don't just leave OCs like that? I wish to develop on Noone's personality a bit more, since it's only just introduced.

Well... that's that.


	14. The Story

**TechnoDee:**

Ha. I love how everyone's all "KIRBY WHY". Please, this is what, a few years after Nightmare's defeat, if I hadn't put that in? And even after a few years, you wouldn't expect _any_ changes in personality? That's just unrealistic.

**NoneKnowme**: Singaporeans don't celebrate Halloween. It's just all, "Oh, it's Halloween." and then no collecting of candy whatsoever, no dressing up, just sitting in your house and playing Cookie Clicker. Okay, maybe not everyone plays Cookie Clicker, but that's what I do. Besides, this year's Halloween I'm going for some silly class trip to Malacca.

* * *

14: The Story

_"Once upon a time..."_

* * *

Noone had waited five minutes of "thought-gathering" until he began his story. Meta Knight was irritated, but Miinyx thought it definitely cleared his mind of the whole Kirby thing, but she didn't say that.

_(Once upon a time, there was a kingdom. There was, uh... Now lemme see...)_ Noone paused for a while, doing some "thought-gathering" again, before continuing. _(There was a castle, because there was a kingdom, or something funny like that, but you know, who cares? That isn't important. I don't remember which dimension, or which planet, it takes place in, but you know what? Just listen. There was a... is it a boy or a girl? Ah, yes, it was a boy. The boy's family wasn't poor, but wasn't rich enough to be deemed "royalty", and anything that wasn't royalty was basically a peasant. Things were like that back then. Such a dick.)_ Noone made an irritated sound.

"And?" Meta Knight asked impatiently. He didn't like Noone's style of "telling a story"—in which had many interruptions.

_(And so... you know, it would be nice being royalty, but the boy couldn't get close enough to the king.)_ Noone paused, doing the same "thought-gathering". _(When he was at quite a young age, his parents were taken to be executed for being accused of something they didn't even do. But what was the boy to do? He was only about 11 or 12 at that time.)_

"What were they accused for?"

_(Bad-mouthing the king. They must have misheard wrongly,)_ Noone said. _(And just to add extra effect, I was rolling my eyes just now. Anyway, the boy was taken into the dungeons. He was to serve the king with all the others people trapped in the dungeons. But thing is... they came out once in a while to serve the king. That boy, while he was cleaning the dishes, the king happened to walk into the kitchen at that point in time. Everybody dropped their things at once and bowed—including that boy, of course. The king saw him, and for once, used that darned talent of his which he should not have. Seeing who has talents. He noticed the boy could grow up to be a guard in the castle, and appointed him as a guard.)  
_

"Was he good at fighting?"

_"Strange. You complain about Noone's interruptions, then you interrupt it yourself..."_ Miinyx mused.

_(AS I WAS SAYING. Well, the boy was good at fighting, but soon, he lost interest in fighting and moved on to machinery. He was basically fascinated by how machines worked. The king was, naturally, very angry. He had had the finest tutors to train him, but the boy didn't exactly care about that. The boy was sent to the prison. But the boy had enough training from the tutors and managed to escape. He left without a trace. He didn't do anything. He just vanished. The king was horrified, but could do nothing. And at that kingdom, up until now, that boy had never been found. But we know where he is.)_

"Well... all right. So basically, the king was horrified because the boy could kill him anytime?" Meta Knight guessed.

Noone went quiet for a while. _(Yes... that's it. Well, the boy ended up in a small and quiet village. He seemed to like this village and stayed there. And what happens there is for another time.)_

"...Oh." Meta Knight didn't exactly like that. He liked to hear the complete thing. Without any lies, of course. "What was his name?"

_(...His name? Oh, his name was—)_

_"Get out!"_ Miinyx screeched violently. _"Don't you dare try that!"_

_(What? You know it's—)_

Noone was cut off abruptly. Miinyx was, visibly, bristling, obviously livid. Meta Knight blinked. "What happened, Miinyx? What was the boy's name? What was Noone doing? Was he doing something bad?"

Miinyx only answered the final question. _"He was doing something horrid, boy. I suggest you do not find out about it. I would not like you to find out about it, either."_

Meta Knight knew there was no point in asking again. Miinyx had purposely only answered one. "Well, what did you do? Noone isn't a physical being. You couldn't have harmed him. Not like you could have gotten out of my head anyway."

_"I set up a psychological barrier between us and it,"_ Miinyx said simply. _"And since when was it a he?"_

"Huh?"

_"You've been referring to it as a he for a while, haven't you? I'm talking about Noone."_

"Oh. Uh. Well. I have this gut instinct that Noone's a guy. And he sounds like a guy."

_"Doesn't mean it IS a guy. Oh well."_

Meta Knight shook it off. "Well, how did you set up a psychological barrier? I've never heard of _you_ doing that."

_"I have many powers that you don't know of, boy. I've only shown you my physical strength and nothing else. I have psychological abilities and poison abilities, and the rest would be too complicated for you so we'll just stop there."_ Miinyx was irritated. Much could be told by that.

"What bad thing is Noone trying to do?"

_"Re—no, I am not telling you."_

"Why not?"

_"Go to sleep, boy."_

* * *

Meta Knight woke up, and the first thing he did (apart from blinking, breathing, respiring and all the necessities) was to squint. The sun was darn bright today. ...Bright? He was _late_! Oh crap, what time was it? What if they had left without him?

_"Boy, calm down."_

"Miinyx—Miinyx, what time is it?!"

_"It's early. Calm down."_

"You're so unhelpful! Noone! Noone, where are you?"

_"The psychological barrier is still there. He cannot talk to you, neither can you talk to him,"_ Miinyx said harshly. _"As I told you, he's trying to corrupt you. I'm not letting him talk to you, or vice versa, until I deal with him myself."_

Meta Knight blinked, confused. "How can you deal with him?"

Miinyx scoffed. _"I have psychological powers. Which includes telepathy. I can talk with him through the barrier, you know. You can't. Once I make sure he promises to never, ever, tell you that horrid thing, I'll release the barrier. Until then, no Noone."_

"Which way is back to the beach?"

_"Isn't it obvious? It's that way! ...Okay, you don't know. Fine then, let me take you back."_ Miinyx grabbed control and his feet automatically moved. He began running, and it felt sort of weird because technically, he wasn't actually running, but Miinyx was making him.

After running into bushes, branches, and fallen logs countless times, Meta Knight finally reached the beach. He exhaled, relieved when he saw Girl 434 against the rocks. She spotted him and waved with a friendly smile on her face. The knight, now control of his senses, jogged over. "Where have you been?" the robot asked. "You left yesterday in a hurry. I wanted to ask you, but you were too quick."

_Shit!_ He hadn't thought of a decent answer. "Oh, well, I was supposed to collect some firewood, but then I got lost," Meta Knight replied. Bullshitting on the moment was not his thing, but right now, he had to.

"Oh... all right. Well, they're all inside right now," Girl 434 said, gesturing to the cave. "I don't think any of them are up... but last night was kind of saddening and frightening, if you ask me."

Suddenly, Meta Knight felt a warm breath above him. He looked up and saw the gigantic Quatapye. Quatapye had grown bigger since last night, and was developing at a rapid pace. He let out a friendly growl. Meta Knight waved uncertainly before turning back. "I'll be heading into the cave right now," Meta Knight told Girl 434. "I'll come out again to check on your wound. ...I won't run this time."

The knight stepped into the cave. His heart literally leapt into his mouth as he panicked. Kirby! The pink puffball would certainly NOT be happy. Someone stirred, then after a while, stood up. Meta Knight's breath hitched.

It was Yirby.

"Meta Knight? Oh, you're back. I didn't see you yesterday, so I was worried. Birby seemed pretty worried too, but since you're all fine, I was worrying for nothing!" Yirby said with a bright beam. "You _are_ all right, aren't you?"

Apart from being mentally tortured... "Of course I am," Meta Knight said with a forced smile that wasn't even necessary because no one could see him smile. "I have a bit of scratches from walking through the forest, but I'll be fine. How was Kirby?"

Yirby tilted his head. "...Kirby? Oh, he's _fine_! I suppose. He seemed quite angry yesterday and wouldn't tell _any_ of us why. We're leaving this planet tonight, by the way, so don't run away!"

"Right," Meta Knight said, nodding. "Are the others awake?"

"Just me," Yirby yawned. "Yesterday was very tiring... don't you think? Oh wait... you weren't even here... Oh, crap, you weren't here! So you don't know what happened..."

Another figure stood up. It was Rirby. "Oh, Meta Knight, you're back. I was expecting a little later. ...I was wrong, huh?" He smiled wearily. "Well, it's good that you're back and all... so, uh, what happened while you were out?"

Meta Knight shrugged, sitting down. "Nothing much." _Apart from Miinyx screaming at Noone and her setting up a psychological barrier..._

"There's nothing much to see on this planet," Reese, who apparently just woke up, stated with a roll of her eyes. "Nightmare treats it as a rubbish dump—and at rubbish dumps, there are never anything to see."

"...I encountered some of those demon beasts. Buzzine, I think," Meta Knight said. "Why are they here?"

"Well..." Reese thought for a moment. "They're just demon beasts that always lurk around here. I suppose now they have no way to anywhere else since the portal closed after Nightmare died. I think they're still exterminating the robots... it's a matter of time until they get Girl 434. But sometimes, you know, robots can tame some of the Buzzine so they're under their control."

Meta Knight gave it some thought. "Are there still robots on this planet?"

"No doubt there are," Reese replied. "They've been on this planet for a long time—they know all the brilliant hiding spots so we pass by them and we don't know it. But it doesn't matter—they'll die eventually when the Buzzine catch them. Not all Buzzine are tameable."

"I see."

"So... we're leaving."

"Does this planet have a name?" Meta Knight asked suddenly.

Reese gave him a blank stare. "Well, at first Nightmare didn't bother to think up of a name for it, so he just called it ?, but we later started calling it Labura. Nightmare never cared what we called it, though..."

By the time everyone awoke, there was now a new problem. How was Quatapye supposed to fit inside the Super-Starship?

After some discussions and arguments, Miinyx was finally tired of it.

_"Dragons can travel through space,"_ the demon snapped huffily. _"They have an ability to do so, and just in case you haven't noticed, they don't need oxygen. Oxygen is just like something extra. They can survive without gravity. They were made that way."_

Well, _that_ was one advantage having a demon stuck in your head.

"Quatapye will be fine," Meta Knight said casually. "He can follow the Super-Starship in space."

Meta Knight didn't exactly want to see Kirby, so he hurriedly headed inside the Super-Starship. Kirby entered last, thankfully. Quatapye watched them from outside the transparent glass.

"Hikari will be there," Girby informed Meta Knight.

"That's fine," the knight replied confidently. "I'd have to deal with her sooner or later, anyway."

* * *

**A/N:** And that's the end of chapter 14. I know it sucked. And to top it off, Noone's been booted out! ...Temporarily. He'll be back in the next chapter, so relax.

In any case... stuff starts happening in the next chapter, like _**serious shit**_, so do be prepared and I gave you a warning.


	15. The Truth

**TechnoDee:  
**

Okay, guys, no more happy time.

This was actually supposed to be chapter 10 but I held it off a bit longer... for reasons. So don't complain!

* * *

15: The Truth

_"As a matter of fact..."_

* * *

Meta Knight noticed something very strange on the Super-Starship. Everyone was working perfectly fine—but they were a bit... edgy, Meta Knight noticed. Miinyx couldn't be bothered to "crack the mystery", but Meta Knight sure was curious. No one would tell him anything, though. They were all hiding a secret. Meta Knight didn't particularly like secrets, but Miinyx pointed out he was very secretive with his mask, so the knight could not complain.

"Birby, has something happened?" Meta Knight inquired. The blue puffball turned and faced him, beaming.

"Eh? No! Nothing at all, Meta Knight! I'm just really happy we'll get back to Popstar!" he said jubilantly. Meta Knight definitely wouldn't be able to get anything out of him—he was a brilliant actor (as most of the puffballs there were).

The knight tried the ill-tempered scarlet puffball next. "Rirby, did anything happen when I was gone?"

As (kind of) expected, he got a very snappish reply. "No, nothing happened you blockhead! Obviously, if something happened, I _would_ tell you, wouldn't I?!" Rirby spat, head swinging back to view Popstar, which was still small in the distance.

It was Yirby next. "Anything happened, Yirby?" He felt like a parrot now.

"Eh? Anything? Hm... Girl 434's leg is tons better, but it'll still be hard for her to walk. Ooh! Quatapye can conduct electricity too! He spat it out on the sea once! It was so awesome! I wish you were there!" Yirby exclaimed. "And Kirby's been a bit snappy, not too much like Rirby, thank goodness! We don't need another ill-tempered person here. Oh! Staroyo's ability is something related to the stars, but we haven't figured it out yet."

There was no way whatever Yirby just spouted in Meta Knight would make them edgy. But Yirby had finished talking. Meta Knight went on to the next person—Girby, who was constantly jittery.

Once Meta Knight asked the same question, Girby stared at him. "U-Um, nothing's happened recently that's bad... t-that's what I-I know! M-Maybe w-we're a bit n-nervous because we're returning to Popstar, a-and facing Hikari?"

Not likely. Meta Knight went on to Reese, who was sitting on a chair and watching Quatapye fly beside them. He was doing well. "Reese, do you know why everyone is so jumpy?" he asked.

"Maybe for Quatapye that he can't keep up? I dunno." Her voice slightly wavered, but she definitely wasn't about to tell him anything.

"Staroyo, did anything happen?"

"Nothing that I know of," Staroyo replied. "We are anticipating another huge fight—I think Nightmare had siblings. He mentioned it once but never said anything important about it."

_That_ may be it—but no one had any reaction even when Staroyo said it. And plus, Staroyo looked very calm. Perhaps it wasn't likely to happen.

Girl 434 kept quiet when Meta Knight asked her that question, but she was shuddering uncontrollably. Before Meta Knight could move on, Kirby pushed his way through, and ground out, "Poyo, poyo poyo!"

"He said 'just spit out the truth already!'," Yirby translated. "Are you sure we should do that?"

"So something _is_ happening!" Meta Knight exclaimed.

_"Obviously,"_ Miinyx sneered. _"I'm done dealing with that brat Noone—he's promised, so you can talk_ _to him again."_

_(Meta Knight, cover your ears, now!)_

_"It's one of the few times I agree with him."_

"Should we?" Girby asked nervously. "I m-mean, he'll get very u-upset..."

"Just tell him the freakin' truth already," Rirby snapped.

_(Meta Knight, haven't you noticed? Someone's been missing.)_

_"Don't hint, you brat!"_

"Galacta Knight is dead."

The words struck like an unseen basketball to Meta Knight's head. Which was accurate, because Miinyx let out a sharp yelp and swerved suddenly, signaling something was going on in the knight's head. Meta Knight himself didn't care; he simply stared at Birby—the one who had said it.

And in his head, Miinyx was screeching away. _"See! See! I KNEW something like this would happen. I mean, really! It happens in everyone's lifetime at least once. I was hoping this stupid boy had already passed that stage, but apparently not!"_

_(Keep quiet, and don't call him stupid!)_ Noone snapped back. _(He's having difficulties.)_

"Repeat what you said," Meta Knight told Birby. The blue puffball narrowed his eyes at him.

"I already said it once, and I meant it," Birby hissed.

Yirby silenced Birby with a nudge to his side. "It was the Buzzine attack. At first, we thought Galacta Knight would live, but when we had a better look, we realized she was in critical condition. There wasn't much we could do. Reese didn't know what to do, either. Buzzine usually killed the enemy straight, or didn't leave a mark on the target at all. That's the kind of demon beasts they were. But we managed to stop the fight while Galacta Knight was getting torn apart, so we didn't know..."

"When?"

Yirby looked down gloomily.

"Yesterday night," Fumu said for him.

"When Kirby chased you away," Birby unhelpfully added. "We... well, we later discovered Kirby did that on purpose. He knew Galacta Knight was dying. He didn't want you to be there while she died, so he chased you away."

"What?" This wasn't even possible. _No_. What happened to the strongest warrior in the galaxy?

_"People die,"_ Miinyx stated. _"I don't understand why you don't understand that. Besides! Haven't you seen your allies getting sliced down by enemies while you were a Star Warrior? How is this any different?"_

_'Galacta Knight wasn't just an ally,'_ Meta Knight seethed. _'She was a friend and a survivor. And we only just reunited. And then she died!'_

_"What are you going to do about it?"_ Miinyx demanded. _"Sit there and cry, and somehow she gets resurrected? Things don't work like that, boy. Not like in those fairy tales you always read. If she's dead, then she's dead, and there's nothing more you can do about it!"_

_(She has a point,)_ Noone unhelpfully added.

"Where is she now?" Meta Knight demanded, ignoring them.

"We buried her back on Labura," Reese replied. "We didn't want to carry a corpse around with us. We knew you wouldn't like it, but it was the best way."

Meta Knight was at a loss for words. His last old friend had been shot down and was currently _dead_. He knew death was a painful, sorrowful thing, and he had experienced it many times, but he always had friends left. And now his last old friend was dead.

This. Was. Insanity.

_"We've been gone from Popstar for a week,"_ Miinyx informed Meta Knight curtly. _"I wonder if there are any changes. And if so, what they are."_

_(There are horrid changes, I'm sure,)_ Noone muttered. _(Popstar is in sight.)_

_"Are you ready, boy?"_ Miinyx demanded. _"Because if you're not, I might not be able to support you much longer."_

* * *

Popstar was a horrid mess.

Meta Knight honestly didn't expect so many changes while they were gone. He was still depressed from the whole Galacta Knight death thing, and Popstar was merciless and had the gall to show up in _this_ kind of state.

Popstar looked like a war had just taken place. There was blood everywhere, corpses lying at unexpected areas, injured people desperately trying to find some kind of thing that would heal them or something like that. This was a shock for all of them. Quatapye was uneasily looking around at them.

"The Boggart!" Yirby gasped suddenly. His feet shot towards a familiar, rocky path that led to the marsh. The rest followed.

Luckily, the Boggart was alive. "Boggart!" Yirby called. The Boggart surfaced.

"Aye!" The Boggart blinked at them. "I see what I see? It Master Yirby, innit?"

"Yirby," Yirby confirmed, folding his arms. "Do you know where Dokeshi is?"

"Dokeshi? In 'is cave, o' course..." the Boggart replied, pointing to Dokeshi's cave. "Stuff been 'appening. Best Dokeshi told you 'imself."

All of them walked into the cave. Quatapye walked in with difficulty, being so large. Dokeshi looked at them, wide-eyed.

"Oh! You're still alive! Thank goodness... and not a single scratch, I see! Oh, new guests? That's fine as well! At least people are still alive on this planet, apart from the waddle dees..."

"Dokeshi, what happened?" Rirby inquired impatiently.

"A lot of things happened while you were gone," Dokeshi said with a sigh. "Dedede is now in the castle prison. The waddle dees are all hiding in a secret place that no one knows of. This girl, named Hikari, is now the ruler of this land... or what you could say. She basically controls everything; and it's _horrid_. She doesn't control places well. There have been fights, murders, thefts... and she doesn't do anything about them. If it goes on, this will be the end of Popstar."

"She couldn't have gotten so strong so quickly," Meta Knight murmured.

_"She couldn't have?! Oh, it's the contrary! She has some back-up, obviously! How else would she be able to rule over Popstar?"_ Miinyx reasoned.

_(I thought you said...)_ Noone began. Miinyx silenced him.

_'Back-up? What sort of back-up?'_

_"Oh, you'll know."_

"Well she has, and we have to sit here and... think of a way to stop her. I've been recovering from my injuries, too, you know. When Hikari became ruler, there was a huge fight. I was a victim, too... I'm just healing over here. I've been wanting to head out for a long time now, but it's not safe." Dokeshi grunted, as he cast a Healing Spell and put it over his bandage. "The spell passes through the bandage," he explained.

They were all silent for a while. Dokeshi cleared his throat. "I've been living on baked sweet potatoes for a while. Boggart can reach this area that's only accessible through the bog, and there are a few plants which grow sweet potatoes. He collects them for me. Animals aren't harmed, you see."

They all nodded. Yirby spoke up. "But what can we do if Hikari has taken over Popstar?"

"I'm not sure what we can do either," Dokeshi said uncertainly. "But... if we can break into the castle, if we can reach Hikari... if we can capture her... then we could possibly save Popstar. But come. We still have a lot of planning to do."

"What about Sword and Blade?" Meta Knight asked, alarmed. "Are they all right?"

"...They now serve under Hikari," Dokeshi replied. "They do not have a choice—unless they want to be killed."

"When do we get inside the castle?" Meta Knight was sure if questions were matter, he would have exploded with so many of them inside of him.

"Tomorrow morning, really early." Currently, it was quite early in the morning, which meant it would take a lot of planning, or so Dokeshi anticipated. "Hikari, I heard, is not a morning person, and, she does not like getting up early. That would be to our advantage."

Fumu was nervously wringing her hands. "But I can't fight. What about me?"

Dokeshi cast Fumu an anxious glance. "...Oh. That's right. Um. I suppose you'll have to stick with someone, or wait with the Boggart."

"I can't wait with the Boggart!"

"But, now that I think about it, it's much safer that way..." Dokeshi pondered on it for a while. "Well, here's a good deal. I've invented something called the Commiree. It looks like a phone, except when you click this special button, the screen will be projected in front of your face and we can talk face-to-face. Maybe you could see how we're doing through it. We'll communicate with you once in a while."

Fumu was displeased, but she hid it. "Fine," she sighed. "Then I suppose we'll have to start planning now. Hikari doesn't have any defenses, I don't think, since the waddle dees are hiding."

"Then let's get planning."

* * *

**A/N:** Ha! So that happened. While I didn't get any reviews on the last chapter, I was kind of itching to update. So here it is!

So...

Basic summary: In truth, Galacta Knight is dead, Meta Knight is mortified (but he's been trying to hide it, evidently), Noone is back. And when they come back, Popstar has turned into something horrible. Dokeshi reveals that Hikari is currently the ruler, and now they're trying to plan to save Popstar from Hikari. Though question is, _what_ is Meta Knight's problem with Hikari?

I actually wanted to add some Miinyx and Noone disturbing Meta Knight again, but I guessed you guys had already gotten enough of _that_ in the last chapter. So I'll have that postponed to the next chapter, which is most likely this Saturday.

All right! I'm out! See you!


	16. The Break-In

**TechnoDee:**

Okay, I'm a horrible author and whatnot but really. Y is addictive, and you can't blame me for that. Also, sorry for not updating last week. I was busy playing, you see. It's kind of hard to get off a very new game and sit down to type fanfictions.

**waddlesword7star**: Oh, fight scenes. I suck at those. Where is it going? You'll find out soon... 'cause I'm writing that bit soon.

**NoneKnowme**: Answer of the... thing: I don't mind it. I don't like it, nor do I dislike it, it's just okay I guess.  
Good for you. *thumbsies-upsies*

**coleypepwars3679**: Chapter 14: YOU HAVE BEEN WHERE, SIR?! By the way, in the first line, I thought you said PMS then I realized it was actually PMs. The downside of typing block.  
Chapter 15: _What_? That's horrible. Never, ever choose **coley** to get your BGM. Ever.

* * *

16: The Break-In

_"Honestly? I think I'll get used to a monster popping out, me screaming, and then killing it directly afterwards. Honestly."_

* * *

Unfortunately for them, Hikari _had_ employed monsters in the castle, but not many. Their plan was simple: stampede through the castle (even with or without guards), get to Hikari, capture her, bring her back. That is the simplified version. They had a lot more complicated plan, of course, but it can't be told now or it'll ruin the story.

They traveled in one group, figuring that going separate would put them at a disadvantage. After all, they didn't know how strong the monsters could get yet.

They rounded a corner, a monster popped out, some of them screamed, someone would kill it, and they would continue. That was the basic cycle.

"We've been walking for thirty minutes," Birby announced. He was holding a timepiece he had found by the bog, repaired it and started using it. "We're supposed to rest. Meta Knight, it was part of the deal."

_"You should rest, you know,"_ Miinyx unhelpfully agreed. _"From inside here, I can tell you're getting tired."_

Meta Knight grimaced. He had agreed to stopping and resting every thirty minutes. Sighing, he turned to the half-destroyed wall and sat there. The castle was so different, he hardly recognized it. He probably couldn't tell where his room was, too.

Kirby stared at Meta Knight. "Poyo, Waddle Doo, poyo room."

"He said that was the wall Waddle Doo was resting on in Hikari's first attack," Birby translated. "And that must mean your room is somewhere nearby."

Kirby nodded, grateful for the translation. His memory whirled back to that time. (chapter 3 reference)

_"Gosh, Kirby! Where are you taking me?"_ _Fumu demanded, almost tripping over a resting waddle dee._

_"Poy, poyo!"_

_"Okay, great." Fumu didn't understand what he just said, but it was evident enough that he would not let her go until she saw what he wanted her to see._

_Just while they were running, they ran into Waddle Doo, who was sitting against a half-destroyed wall. "Captain Waddle Doo! What happened?" Fumu asked as Kirby halted._

_Waddle Doo shifted slightly, furrowing his brow. "I...I'm not entirely sure. There were a few lightning bolts then my men and I were weakened. Greatly, if I may add. We do not have the strength to get up."_

_"That's okay, but do you know where the intruder is heading?"_

_"Down this hallway, they went into Heika's (Your Majesty's) room—"_

_"Then whoever is in there is in danger!" Fumu yelped. "Kirby, let's go!"_

_"Poyo, poyo!" Kirby said stubbornly, before running into another room._

_"That's Sir Meta Knight's room," Waddle Doo observed. He steadily got up. "Anyway, my men and I shall be off. **Charge**!"_

"Ah, I see..." Meta Knight nodded. "Now that you mention it, it looks vaguely like my door. Except now it looks a lot more different from all the damage."

"Should we go in?" Yirby asked.

Meta Knight thought for a while. "No, we shouldn't. We're not rested yet and we don't know what's inside."

_"Wise choice, boy."_

_(You make him sound like an old man.)_

_"What?! I never said that!"_

_(I said "sound".)_

_"You are a stupid voice. And don't retort to that, or I'll lock you out!"_

* * *

They had gotten their rest and Meta Knight was sure he was prepared for anything that came up next. He gulped, before standing up. "Is everyone ready?" he asked in a rather shaky voice, one he did not prefer. He, generally, did not like to show weakness.

"Ready long time ago," Rirby sneered. "There are people inside your old room—I can hear them. They're muffled, though, so I can't tell what they're saying."

"Okay... how do we get in? I don't think just casually opening the door would suit them very well."

Birby blinked once, twice, faced the door, opened his mouth, and literally sucked out the whole door. Meta Knight jumped in, Galaxia unsheathed, and gasped in horror. The rest poured in, and realized that their opponents were outnumbered.

But the people whom they were expecting was completely the opposite.

"Hikari?" Meta Knight could not believe that he had to face his future (this was silly-sounding—you faced future all the time).

"Meta Knight," she sneered. "Are you finally here for your retribution?"

"Nobody here is for retribution," Yirby retorted.

"Except you!" Rirby snarled. "How dare you even _think_ of ruling over Popstar? Kiss my—"

Rirby was cut off by Girby. "We won't let you get away with this..." He trailed off, then set Hikari with a glare. "We're not stupid—where are the others talking with you?"

Hikari blinked. "...You could hear us? Impressive. Expected from a Star Warrior..." she growled. "You two can come out now!"

Meta Knight tightened his grip on Galaxia. He felt Miinyx setting into a position that meant she was ready to pounce. Noone was quiet—as he usually was when it was serious.

Sword and Blade walked out from hiding behind the wall. They blinked. "Sir!" Sword gasped.

"Fight them!" Hikari said, a malicious sneer curling onto her mouth.

Meta Knight was about to charge and Miinyx stopped him.

_"Let's see who they're loyal to,"_ Miinyx said with a grin. _"Hikari, the one who has brainwashed them in the past week, or you, Meta Knight, their sir for many years."_

Sword and Blade didn't do anything for a long time. Their swords were set firmly in their hands, but Meta Knight could tell they were uncertain. Why wouldn't they walk to his side, the loyal apprentices they were? Had they actually been brainwashed, as Miinyx said? No, that wasn't possible. If they were brainwashed, why were they standing there? ...A part of the plan, perhaps?

Hikari got tired of waiting. She set her hands on her hips. "_Attack_ them!" she barked out.

It was as if that was the trigger. The both of them charged at the group, holding their swords tightly and screaming.

"Stay away!" Yirby screeched, panicked, screaming out a Blow-Back Spell. The two knights once loyal to Meta Knight were blown back to the opposite side of the room. Hikari was completely mobile, shrieking as she threw a lightning bolt at Meta Knight. He swung at it with Galaxia, causing it to rebound. Hikari dodged, and the lightning bolt exploded against the wall, causing a hole in the wall to be formed.

"What was that?" Hikari turned to Yirby, interested. "That was rather interesting. I've never seen it before—"

Just as Hikari was completely mobile, the others were not completely immobile. Rirby, while Hikari was distracted, snuck behind her, swung his foot at Hikari's head. Hikari saw it, just a bit too late, and threw her head downwards. The tip of Rirby's foot met with the very top of Hikari's head. Rirby made an irritated sound and jumped back to where the others were.

_"Wait a second..."_ Miinyx sniffed, and Meta Knight realized the room had gotten extremely dark. Darker than before. _"This is—oh, bloody monster!"_

_'What happened?'_

_"Get out of the room, boy!"_

Meta Knight didn't know what Miinyx meant, but he skidded out of the room anyways. "Follow me!" he called out to the others. He glanced at their puzzled expressions before racing off. Fortunately, they followed, because he could hear a group of footsteps behind him.

"Where are you going? Chicken!" Hikari called out heatedly. "You... _come back here_!"

Meta Knight turned, and Hikari was not so Hikari-like anymore. For one, her voice was glazed over with another. Second, her cerulean eyes had turned pitch black. Third, her hair had turned freaking purple.

Miinyx stiffened. _"Oh... that's terrible. You'll have to get to the throne room."_

_'What?! Why?'_

_"I know what's happened to her now, boy, and she can't access the throne room! So head over there!"_ Miinyx snarled. _"Unless you want to die, that is! Gosh, boy, just listen to me and don't ask questions! I'll explain what has happened to her later—but now, stop being so nosy and just obey my commands!"_

_'Fine! But just so you know, you're the one who decided to invade my mind!'_

Swerving left, Meta Knight spotted the staircase that led to the top level and dashed up. He threw open the doors to the throne room. It was surprisingly empty. Uh...

_"Get in—hurry!"_

Meta Knight ran in. "Get in, everyone! Close the door!" he yelled.

Rirby, the last to enter, slammed the door shut. "What? What happened, Meta Knight?"

"I don't know either... Mi—I mean, I had a feeling that something had happened to her and she couldn't access the throne room," Meta Knight replied. He didn't know why, either, and actually _did_ want to know.

_"Before I should go on, boy... you should tell them about my presence in your head. It will be safe to tell them now," _Miinyx told Meta Knight.

_'What? Why—?'_

_"Don't you see? You're going to need them to know about me! It's been a long time since I've decided to make a nest in your mind, boy, and I know them well enough. In any case, they can't chase me away."_

_(Guys?)_

_"Yes?"_ Miinyx demanded.

_(Hikari isn't entering the throne room... she's searching elsewhere...)_

_"Good!"_

"Okay, guys," Meta Knight announced.

"Yeah?" Reese turned to him.

"Uh... I have something to say..." He wasn't sure how to phrase this. "Actually... since before we left Popstar... You know, this being that's in my head right now actually, uh, visited me."

"Really?" Yirby asked, interested. "What was it?"

Oh, the trickiest part... "A demon," Meta Knight replied shortly. He saw the surprised—and shocked—expressions on their faces. "She's—She's not a bad thing! Actually, I'm alive right now thanks to her. You see, one of the times on Labura... I was attacked by a Buzzine, who had Galaxia in its mouth, and I couldn't fight. I called her and she kind of... saved me."

Dokeshi sighed. "Thank goodness she's not an evil demon."

"She's... um, short-tempered and really snappish. She knows what's happened to Hikari, because Hikari wasn't herself."

"What's her name?" Girby asked curiously.

"Miinyx," Meta Knight replied. "She'll be really helpful—I know she will be! So yeah... I don't know what's happened to Hikari but we might as well just listen to Miinyx and see what she has to say."

_"I've set up a mental network between all of us,"_ Miinyx informed Meta Knight. _"All right... so this is all I can say. Hikari has been cursed with Misery."_

"Misery?" Yirby inquired.

_"Misery is Nightmare's younger brother. You see, before I went into this dimension, Misery was actually a ruler in one of the planets—Merakory. One day, our planet ruler—a benevolent spirit, named Akure—told us Misery was greatly grieved. Actually, it turned out his older brother, Nightmare, had perished. Any brother would be saddened by their brother's death—so was Misery. Misery sought revenge, but he didn't even know where to start."_

"Oh... that's... horrible!" Girby exclaimed. "But we had to kill Nightmare... he was evil... is Misery evil too?"

_"Yes,"_ Miinyx replied. _"Misery was very much evil. He used the creatures on Merakory as test subjects and killed them as he pleased. Back to what I was saying... Misery found out the dimension where his brother was, and traveled there. He planned for many years his plot to avenge his brother."_

"Then how did you end up here?" Dokeshi asked.

_"Well, actually, when Akure discovered this, she was horrified. She knew Nightmare and Misery were both evil, and deserved to be punished. She knew which dimension this was, so she chose me to go over there and help to stop Misery. Well... unfortunately, I didn't know who would get involved with Misery, so I wandered around. I found Meta Knight, and knew he would be the most involved with Misery, so using my psychological powers, I stayed in his head and made the excuse that I actually couldn't just not stay in anyone's head. As time passed, I soon realized that... I would be much more effective in combat if I were to stay in someone's mind, so I did just that. And Misery has made his first move... on Hikari. He found out that Hikari hated Meta Knight a lot, so he placed a curse on her, with her agreement. She probably just wanted revenge on Meta Knight."_

"Oh..." Reese breathed. "I didn't think that such a complicated thing would happen. Why does Meta Knight hate Hikari?"

_"I... don't know. Ask him."_

Meta Knight shifted uncomfortably. Blast that Miinyx! She knew, of course, but wanted Meta Knight to say it himself! Well... _fine_!

"Actually, I—"

Suddenly, everything went dark. Miinyx was horrified. _"No! The throne room is a place of holiness, Misery cannot access it! What—Why—"_

_'Miinyx, what happened?!'_

_"Misery! Misery has gotten in!"_ For once, Miinyx sounded panicked. _"He can't access holy places—what happened? Oh, is it because he's been preparing for this all this time? Boy? Boy! Listen to me! Misery, he's here!"_

_'What do I do?!'_

_"I don't know, boy, I—Noone! You know something, don't you?"_

_(I... do, but I—)_

Everything went dark. Meta Knight's senses failed him. Around him, the rest had the same experience. They all fell to the ground, unconscious.

* * *

**A/N:** Oh, so introduction of the antagonist! Yeah... Misery is a lame name... but so is Nightmare! And Noone actually knows something, but of course, cliche strikes again, and they all get knocked out.

Basic summary: They find Hikari, who has successfully brainwashed Sword and Blade. They run into the throne room after Hikari started acting strange (upon Miinyx's command), and Miinyx makes Meta Knight tell his comrades about her. Their reaction to that is fine, though. Miinyx sets up a mental network between all of them and explains what happened. It turns out that Misery, Nightmare's younger brother, wants to avenge Nightmare. Somehow, Misery gets in, even though he shouldn't be able to. Apparently, Noone knows what to do, but before he can say anything, the group gets knocked out. And we still don't know what Meta Knight did to Hikari!

Yup, yup. That's about it. I'm going off to play my 3DS again.


End file.
